Dipping Into Darkness
by Flek Siner
Summary: Who needs Rumble McSkirmish to fight your battles when you've got the help of a monstrous dream demon?
1. Chapter 1

A young boy walked back and forth in a musty upstairs loft. He wore a set of boyish clothes topped off with a blue baseball cap. His hands repetitively squirmed over each other as he paced; beads of sweat dropped off of his pale, unblemished skin. The nervous looking boy's name was Dipper Pines. And he was terrified.

Now Dipper was no stranger to fear. Since moving to his Great Uncle Stan's Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls, Oregon for the summer a few weeks ago with his twin sister Mabel, they'd been under a constant bombardment from freaks and monsters from the woods around town. He'd faced down polyamorous gnomes, giant robots, sociopathic child psychics, even an army of clones of himself. He'd even say that living/working with his Grunkle Stan was terrifying in its own right.

But for some reason, while almost all of the dangers he and his sister had dealt with had been life threatening, and shortening on some counts, nothing had scared Dipper more than this. Earlier that day, Dipper had taken it upon himself to chase off the boyfriend of the Mystery Shack's only cashier and the object of his affection, Wendy, since she wasn't there for the day.

He insulted the teen, Robbie, and, after a short session of childish name calling, destroyed the teen's cell phone when Robbie had mockingly said he was going to ask Wendy if she want to go out on a date with the boy. After smacking the cellphone onto the ground and sending it to oblivion, Robbie challenged the boy to a fight.

_"You. Me. Circle Park. Three o'clock. We finish this."_

That's what Robbie said to him before storming off. Leaving to Dipper to come to the realization that he was completely and totally screwed.

"What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" Dipper mumbled to himself. He had tried to get help from Mabel and Grunkle Stan, but they just made fun of him for being rash. Well Mabel did that, Stan just made fun of him for existing. They told him to either fight him like a man or hide like a wimp. Even the only other male friend Dipper had, Soos the lovable handyman, had just told him to either put up or shut up.

Dipper thought angrily to himself as he paced, _"Where do they get off?! I'm not rash! Rash is throwing a television out a window because you couldn't find the remote! It's wearing a sweater around your legs because you couldn't find a pair of pants!"_

As he thought, Dipper absently began to tap on the large leather bound book he kept in his vest's inner pocket, the Journal. A book Dipper had found while exploring the woods outside the Mystery Shack. The book had been a life saver for him and his sister since they'd gotten to Gravity Falls. It held knowledge on all of the strange creatures and happenings around the town. It had told him how to fight grizzled monsters and shown the paths to strange other worldly objects…..

"Wait! Duuuuh! The book! Why didn't I think of that earlier?" Dipper exclaimed. He pulled out the Journal and began frantically turning over pages, looking for anything that could help.

"I'm not dealing with those testosterone fueled jerks again," Dipper said as he flipped past the Manotaur's page. "Or the Gnomes… Don't have that time machine anymore… Not really feeling up to using that copy machine again. Three of me is probably as wimpy as one anyway… Oh what's this?"

Dipper had turned onto a page with the image of a blackened out triangle with arms and legs drooping from it. A white eye was stuck in the center of it; it also seemed to be wearing a bowtie and top hat.

"What is this thing? A dapper corn chip?" He read over the page. "Bill Cipher. Says he's a dream demon." Reading further Dipper saw crossed out text and large red words all over the page. "CAN'T BE TRUSTED" and "DO NOT SUMMON AT ALL COSTS!" stood out the most. The entry on Bill was largely a warning. The author had apparently met the demon several times, on account of the familiar way he wrote about it. Turning the page Dipper saw the words "LAST RESORT ONLY!" emblazoned at the top. Below was what looked to be a quick guide to summoning the creature.

Dipper read aloud from the book, "I have created an alternative way to summon Bill Cipher, as the previous way gave him too much freedom. This new ritual will bind Bill to me, like a familiar, until I manage to banish him back to where he came from. I fear the day I have to use this ritual. Everything will have come apart if I have to use this."

Dipper looked up from the text and thought. Was summoning this thing worth it? This thing, this Bill Cipher, was apparently the most dangerous creature in all of Gravity Falls. The Journal said he could destroy his mind and everything he cared for. On the other hand the demon could also give Dipper the upper hand he needed against Robbie. Turning Robbie's brain into gazpacho did sound nice…..

Dipper weighed his options. Summon an extremely dangerous demon to fight Robbie or get the ever loving crap kicked out of him and get humiliated in the process. The thought of Wendy knowing about the fight crossed his mind. If he lost, what would she do? Comfort him? Call him a loser?

"Get your soul destroyed by an other worldly monster or be humiliated by a huge jerk? Die awfully to an evil demon or get beaten up by a guy with a nose bigger than my arms?"

Dipper raised and lowered his arms like a scale as he thought. A beep came from the end table across the room; it was the timer he'd set on his watch. It was 2:30. 2:30?! He looked back at the instructions for the summoning ritual.

"Uh…. The book did say that he would have to do what I said. I just have to be careful that's all. Besides, not having a soul might be liberating. Give me a new worldview.

* * *

Mabel was finishing a late lunch of cheese wiz and crackers when she saw her brother, Dipper, runnig at full speed out the back door.

"Bye Mabel! I'm not doing anything weird! Not a thing!" she heard him yell as he ran past her.

"Huh?" she responded. She had barely noticed him until he was right next to her. It was hard to tear Mabel away from cheese wiz. She looked down and saw that he had dropped something in his wake. It was a single white candle; the kind you might see at a fancy restaurant.

Mabel looked at the lone candle for a moment before going back to her business.

"Whatever."

She opened her mouth and sprayed even more of the artificial dairy down her throat. After sufficiently filling her face with the stuff, she stuck several crackers into the mess, and began to crunch down the awful mess. Several noisy crunches later she had gotten it down.

"Ahhhh," she sighed. "You know food's good when it hurts going down. Whelp," she said standing, "Time to go help Grunkle Stan with his fear of heights. Now where are those handcuffs?

* * *

Dipper stood in a small clearing under a collection of Gravity Fall's old pine trees. He had pain-stakingly placed a series of candles in the shape of an isosceles triangle, and lit each one with the scrutiny of a professional arsonist.

"I have to make sure everything is perfect. One misstep and I'll get possessed, or killed, or whatever it is demons do. I knew I should have finished Faust," Dipper said, fretting over his handiwork. "I've only got ten minutes left." He did a quick once over of the ritual site. Everything looked in place. The alchemical symbols for gold was in place, the sacrificial decoder ring was ready to be smashed, all twelve candles were aligned perfec-

"Twelve candles! There's supposed to be thirteen! Oh no! No. No. No. There's no time to go back! The ritual's gonna fail!" Dipper looked at the site; the only misstep was the candle. Maybe he could replace the candle with something else. Dipper picked up one of the candles and snapped in two. He then stuck the now two smaller candles in their proper spots.

"Not sure if this is right…." Dipper looked at his watch, it was 2:55. "Close enough!"

Dipper got into his space, one foot exactly in front of the ritual triangle's shortest side, and began to read from the book.

_"Triangulor! Isoscelment! Enslavemanate!" _

The sky darkened as a blue glow began emanating from inside the triangle. Dipper could hear animals in woods begin to shriek. The wind started into a frenzy, blowing Dipper to and fro like a ragdoll. He felt a rumbling come from deep in his chest.

"Ughgh… What's happening? I feel like I'm gonna throw up." Dipper clutched his stomach in pain. Dropping to his knees, Dipper lost control of his body and began to chant.

_"Regnah ffilc! Regnah ffilc! Regnah ffilc!"_

The sound of maniacal laughter echoed throughout the air.


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of high pitched laugh reverberated through the woods of Gravity Falls. As the laugh continued time slowed down to a halt. The color drained from the environment, making the forest look like a paint by numbers.

Dipper looked around for the owner of the laughter. He saw the candle light from the ritual site had been taken into the sky, still in its triangular pattern. They moved around the triangle clockwise, increasing with speed as the laughter got louder and louder. Dipper had to cover his ears from the noise.

The lights sped up until it was a solid swirling mass. The laughter reached its fevered pitch and then turned into an ear splitting screech. It was as if someone was shoving a raccoon in a garbage disposal. Something began to form within the triangle of light. It colored the triangle pitch black and started to stretch and morph, like it was trying to escape. It squirmed in the sky for a moment or two before going still.

A white light appeared in its center; it moved upwards and expanded to reveal an eye. White lines ran across the pyramids like snakes, taking their places along the triangles shape until they looked like tiny rectangles. Two more, albeit smaller, triangles formed and stuck themselves together over the rectangles. It was a bowtie.

Noodle like limbs sprouted from its sides and drooped nonchalantly towards the ground. A tiny top hat popped into existence above the triangles head. It looked exactly like the drawing in the book

The screaming stopped, and was replaced by an obnoxious voice. _"Uhhh… What did you do to me?!"_

Dipper didn't expect for the mighty dream demon to sound so whiny. Dipper picked himself up and cleared his throat.

"Um… Uh… I summoned you to do my bidding demon!" Dipper did his best to sound like an evil wizard. "You are under my total control!"

The triangle's eye moved down to Dipper. It stared at him like he was a slab of meat. _"Heh! Kid I don't know how you did that, but you have no idea who you're __**MESSING WITH**__!" _The triangle's voice dropped several octaves into a deep baritone. It floated down to Dipper with uncanny speed. Dipper flinched backwards, shutting his eyes tightly. The demon raised a hand to Dipper but nothing happened. Its black fingers snapped, waiting for the utter destruction that usually brought, but again, nothing.

_"Ahhh! What is this?" _the demon yelled in shock. _"Why can't I annihilate you?!"_

Dipper opened his eyes and grew a smug grin. It looked like the ritual worked, even with the candle. "Yeah that's right. Like I said, you're under my total control."

The triangle seemed to frown with its one eye before. _"Listen, kid. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Let's start over. The name's Bill Cipher."_

"Dipper."

_"Well "Dipper" how about you let me outta this painful light thingy, and we can move along with this conversation?"_

"Oh no. I know about you, Bill," Dipper said with a knowing smile, "You're not getting out of anything. I know what you're capable of." Bill's eye-frown visibly deepened. "And that's exactly why I called you here." Bill's eye perked up.

_"Oh! I see! You need something taken, destroyed, and or ripped limb from limb!" _Bill exclaimed.

Dipper looked around looking a little ashamed, "Not exactly," he muttered.

_"Well what then!? Come on Kid what's the deal!?"_

"I need you to help me win a fight."

_"Pfft! A fight?! Are you kidding kid? You summoned me to fight in some school yard rumble? Talk about overkill."_

"It was my only option," Dipper whined, "Besides overkill is exactly what this guy needs."

Bill looked at Dipper and floated around him. A small cane materialized in Bill's hands. _"So you want me to teach this guy a lesson is that it, kid? Well that's easy as pi!" _Bill began to twirl his cane around in his tiny hands. _"What'd this kid do to ya anyways? Kill your family or something?"_

Dipper looked slightly embarrassed for a moment before saying, "I… uh… accidently broke his phone after getting into an argument about a girl."

_"Hahahahaha! You doomed some punk teenager because of that?! That's harsh kid. I like your style." _Dipper lowered his head in shame. _"A warning though. I can't really interact with anything physical."_

"What?!"

_"Yeah, I'm incorporeal. Go figure. I'm gonna need a vessel if you want me to do anything actually damaging, like break his legs, or snap his neck, maybe shove my fist up his-."_

"I get it! I get it!" Dipper shouted in a disgusted tone, "Well you don't need to actually hurt him. Wait? How were you going to annihilate me, if you can't touch me?"

_"Well actually, kid, we're in a semi-metaphysical mindscape, created by the images your brain just saw as you summoned me. I was just gonna turn you into a vegetable or something. Maybe erase your memory of breathing." _

"So what, am I just staring off into space right now or something?"

_"Actually you're asleep. Probably standing too, like a horse or something! Hahaha!" _

"Wait! I'm asleep. What if I miss the fight?! If I don't show up, Robbie'll tell Wendy I chickened out, and then and then-!"

_"Whoa! Calm down Pine Tree! This little conversation will only have taken seconds when you wake up."_

"Oh. Well that's good," Dipper sighed, "Hold on, Pine Tree?"

_"Well your last name's Pines right?"_

"How did you know that?"

_"Oh I know lots of things. __**LOTS OF THINGS!**__" _Dipper was taken aback by the sudden tonal change.

"A-Anyways… Here's the plan. We go to the park. You come out and show Robbie something that'll make him leave me alone and we're done. No real harm done. Just a little scare. How's that sound?"

_"Sounds A-Okay to me boss man!" _Bill exclaimed with a few ounces of sarcasm. _"But what about my vessel."_

"Could you just do this?" Dipper asked sheepishly.

_"This? You mean make this little parlor trick again? Sure! I won't be able to much damage though."_

"That's okay! You- uh, don't need to do that much. But since that's good let's go my familiar! To the park!" Dipper said, a little courage leaking into his voice. Bill rolled his eye and held out his hand.

_"Here let's shake on it. Make it all official." _A blue flame surrounded the demon's stubby hand. Dipper looked at it with fear before grabbing it reluctantly. _"Alrighty, let's do this thing, kid!"_

The triangular demon rose into the air and began to flash colors rapidly. He yelled at Dipper before he dissipated,_ "Remember, kid! Reality is an illusion! The universe is a hologram! Buy gold! Bye!" _And with that Bill had vanished into the air with a flash.

Dipper opened his eyes. He really had been asleep. He looked around the forest and saw that everything had regained its color and movement. Looking at his watch, Dipper saw that he still had time to get to the park.

"How am I going to call Bill?" As he spoke, Dipper felt a painful burning on his left hand. "Ack! What the?!" Looking down, Dipper saw a small sigil covering the back of his left hand. It was a tiny drawing of Bill Cipher.

"I guess that's how," Dipper painfully sighed.

* * *

Walking to the park Dipper wondered what Bill was doing. Was he following him? Floating around him like some kind of geometrical ghost? As he thought, he saw Mabel on the street, leading a blindfolded Grunkle Stan towards the water tower.

"Hope I don't hear about that on the news tonight." Dipper said to himself. She gave him a happy wave and turned back around to continue doing… whatever it was she was doing.

"Better not tell them what just happened. Don't think demon summoning is a good way to bring a family closer."

As he closed the distance to the park, Dipper heard the clock tower ring 3 o'clock. He saw Robbie sitting on top of a park bench with his hood up. He must have thought he looked cool. Robbie watched him get closer.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up," the teen said getting up from the bench, "I thought you'd chicken out. You ready to settle this like men?" Robbie menacingly advanced towards him.

Dipper decided to give him one chance before unleashing Hell. "Look, dude. I don't think you want to fight me."

"Oh. And why's that? You got some secret karate skills I don't know about? Listen, kid, you asked for this. And when someone asks for a beating from Robbie V, he delivers."

"Okay, you asked for it. Bill, sick'em."

"Bill? Who's that?" Robbie asked incredulously, "You hire a body guard or somthin?"

"Something like that," Dipper said with a smirk.

At that, the world began to, once again, slow down and fade into a colorless backdrop. Robbie looked around in confusion.

"What the?! What's going on?" Robbie hadn't seen anything this weird since that night at the convenience store. Or was it that dream about the convenience store? He couldn't really remember. Robbie looked at Dipper and saw the boy raise his left hand towards him. A little triangle was tattooed on his smooth skin. It began to glow; it shifted off of Dipper's hand and onto the air. It grew and stretched, turning bright gold.

A voice came from the floating shape, _"So you're the guy he was going to fight. I gotta say kid," _Bill said to Dipper, _"I was expecting more than a pockmarked pubescent. I thought this guy was gonna be huge, but he doesn't even look like he can lift a paper weight. Hahaha!" _

The confusion on Robbie's face turned to anger. He wasn't really sure what was going on, but he did know that no one made fun of him. Especially weird, floating nachos.

"Hey shut up triangle dude!" Robbie took a swing at Bill. It phased right through his body, causing Robbie to lose his balance and end up on the ground.

_"Hey, kid look. He thinks he can fight me! Hahaha! Here champ, let me show you how a __**REAL MAN FIGHTS!**__" _Bill quickly flew around Robbie's head and pointed a finger at him. _"You ever wondered what your insides looked like?" _In a flash Robbie found himself looking at muscle and tendons instead of his jacket.

"Ahhh!" Robbie started screaming at the top of his lungs. He could feel rocks and grass scraping up against every part of him. It was more painful than anything he'd ever experienced.

"Uh, Bill," Dipper said nervously. Maybe this was a bad idea, after all.

_"Eh. Bored now," _Bill said with a shrug, _"Let's try this." _In another flash Robbie's skin was back in place. He tried to scramble to his feet, but was caught by an unseen force. _"Here look what I can do?" _Bill reached out, and with a waggle of his tiny blackened fingers all of Robbie's teeth came flying out of his mouth into Bill's palm. _"Hehehe! Look at all these cavities. You're disgusting, guy! Here, you can have them back." _Bill began flicking the teeth back at Robbie at high speed.

Dipper looked on in horror at the torment Bill was enjoying. He hadn't really thought this was how it was going to go down. Maybe a few weird wacky faces or giant monster screaming at him, but not awful mutilation. Dipper didn't care for Robbie…. Okay he really didn't like Robbie… Alright, he hated Robbie, but this was inhumane.

"Bill, I think we should stop now. I think Robbie's not gonna mess with me anymore. Or do anything for a while," Dipper said sullenly. Bill turned to look at Dipper, still flinging teeth at the screaming teen.

_"You've gotta go big or go home, Pine Tree. If we don't go all out now, then he won't learn his lesson. Besides throwing this filthy little punk's teeth is fun!"_

Robbie decided to try his luck with running away after the fifteenth tooth. He sprinted out of the park at high speed. Only to end up running right back into the park, towards Bill.

_"There's no running from me Robbie! I control __**EVERYTHING **__here!" _

"Ahh!" the only thing Robbie could do at this point was scream.

_"That's it scream! Hahaha!" _Bill continued his onslaught of teeth.

"Bill that's enough," Dipper yelled, "He's had eno-!"

"Ahh!" Robbie cut him off.

"He's had en-!"

"Ahh!"

"He's had en-!"

"Ahh!"

"Jeeze, shut up!" Dipper yelled exasperated. Bill snapped his fingers and Robbie's mouth was gone. The screams were still there, just muffled.

_"How's that?" _Bill asked.

"A lot better actually, that was real-! Hey don't change the subject! What was that? I told you to stop! Now stop!"

_"Sorry kid, guess I just didn't hear you," _Bill said, poking a finger into a nonexistent ear canal. _"Maybe speak up next time."_

"Uhh! That's it! End it now! We're done. Let Robbie go." Bill shrugged and snapped his fingers. The world sped back to reality. Both Dipper and Robbie woke up in the park. Drool ran down both of their respective faces. Robbie jumped up with a start.

"Ah! Ah! Wh-Wh-What was…" He looked at Dipper, "Ahh!" He did a one eighty and took off in the other direction. He was relieved he could actually escape this time.

"Ughhghghg," Dipper sighed. "What did I just do?" Dipper looked down at his left hand. "I'm gonna be dealing with this for a while aren't I."

_"You got that right kid!"_

"Bill!?"

_"Down here, kid!" _the voice was coming from Dipper's sigil, _"Normally when I finish a job I scram, but it looks like your fancy summoning ritual's keeping me around. Looks like we're gonna be stuck together for a while!" _Dipper gulped.


	3. Chapter 3

Dipper looked at his hand in abject terror. Bill's mark was still emblazoned on his, formerly unblemished, skin. The pupil in the center moved to stare into his eyes.

"Why are you still here?! Leave! The job's done. Go away!" Dipper angrily yelled at his blemished skin.

_"You think I wouldn't be gone by now if I could?!" _Bill's speech caused the mark on Dipper's hand to throb. _"It looks like your little ritual did more than keep me from getting into your mind. I'm stuck. I can't even move away from your person. The most I can manage is just move around your scrawny little body." _Bill's mark then moved from the positon on Dipper's hand onto his arm. It felt like a million invisible legs crawling along Dipper's skin.

"Ughgh. Don't do that," Dipper disgustedly groaned, "Wait! You didn't, like, possess me did you?"

_"I wish! A possession might have made this little ordeal worth it. It looks like I'm just bound to your pathetic existence for the time being. _

"Hey! My existence is not pathetic. At least I have a full body!" Dipper argued.

_"Yeah, only being able to exist in three dimensions sure is superior to a perfect being of pure energy. Whatever you say, kid. Listen, why don't you use that fancy little diary of yours to find out how to separate us? Better yet! Just run into traffic; your death might release me from this awful skin prison. Look a semi! Jump, quickly!" _Bill ranted. Dipper's hand continued to painfully ache the more the demon spoke.

Dipper ignored the traffic comment and decided to check the Journal. There had to be something on exorcism or reverse rituals. Maybe tips on spectral tattoo removal. Dipper began walking home; he figured doing this in a more secluded place would be for the better.

* * *

Dipper saw Mabel and Grunkle Stan on the water tower as he walked back to Mystery Shack. His twin was buzzing around Stan, rapidly waving her arms and mouthing, what he assumed to be, words of encouragement. She noticed him walking down the street and gave him an excited wave.

She shaped her arms into "R U O K". She was asking about the fight. Dipper winced a little and gave her a thumbs up. She gave him a concerned look before reverting back to her normal smile. She returned his thumbs up with her own. Mabel turned her attention back the quivering Grunkle Stan.

_"Looks like little Shooting Star has her hands busy. Shoving an old man off a water tower, looks like hard work. Ya know, I bet you wouldn't have to rely on me for people like Robbie if you could take charge like that! Old man in your way? BLAM! Off a water tower!" _Bill sounded like he was mocking Dipper.

Dipper frowned, "She's not killing Grunkle Stan! She's just… uh… Okay, so I don't what she's doing. But I'm sure it isn't murder! Although…" Dipper recalled back to a week ago, when Stan had thrown out a pitcher of fresh "Mable Juice". "So much screaming," Dipper mumbled. "What did you mean by Shooting Star? Do you just have a weird little nickname for everyone?"

_"Sure, that's it. Her bright expression reminded me of a large meteorite entering the atmosphere at high speeds! Doesn't it make perfect sense?!" _Bill screamed in Dipper's head.

"Uh… Sure. I guess," Dipper said confused. He really needed to get this thing out of him. Bill's demented rants made him nervous. He wasn't really sure how to deal with something like Bill. He was the most monstrous thing Dipper had ever been in the company of. It was like the concept of morality was completely alien to him.

_"Morality is a lie, kid." _Bill said, breaking Dipper from his thoughts.

"Wh-What?" How had known that was on his mind?

_"It's a lie. Doesn't matter. Morality is a mental cage designed by the weak." _Bill's voice sounded sinisterly helpful. He thought what he was saying was perfectly normal. _"Also, just because I can't enter your mind fully, doesn't mean I can't read your thoughts. You're like an open book! Hehehe!"_

"You can hear everything?" Dipper asked, scared.

_"Oh, don't worry about it Pine Tree! It's not like your thoughts are particularly interesting! Hahaha!" _Dipper didn't respond. He did his best to keep his mind relatively clear as he walked home.

* * *

Dipper walked onto the overgrown lot of the Mystery Shack a little while later. Bill hadn't spoken the rest of the walk home, which Dipper was thankful for. The Shack looked the same as it had when he had left an hour ago.

Gompers the goat was in the middle of the yard eating what looked to a tape player. Mabel was going to be mad about that one. He expected to hear her giving the omnivorous goat a lecture about boundaries later that night. Dipper could have pulled the thing out of its mouth, but he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Walking past the goat and into the gift shop, Dipper saw no one at the counter. Wendy would only just be getting back from her family camping trip, so her absence was expected. He didn't really feel like he could face her right now anyway. Attacking the mind of your crush's boyfriend wasn't exactly something he wanted on the table the next time they talked.

Dipper didn't see anyone else in the Shack either. The shop was closed so Soos might have already gone home, and Mabel and Grunkle Stan were both still out.

"Perfect," Dipper said to himself. No interruptions. He would need all the concentration he could get to try and separate himself from Bill. He climbed the stairs to the shared attic he called home.

Dipper moved inside the room quickly and locked the door behind him. Even though he was alone he could just see somebody walking in on him during this. And he really didn't want another embarrassing walk-in from another family member/close friend; they seemed to be happening with a lot more frequency lately.

The nervous boy pulled out the Journal that caused this mess. As he flipped through the pages he could feel Bill's single eye watching him. He felt the mark move from the top of his hand to his palm. It was scanning the text as he moved through the book. Bill was silent as he read.

"Here we go," Dipper mouthed as he turned to the ritual page. His eyes narrowed as he read through the part about the binding. It read: _"This new ritual will bind Bill to me, like a familiar, until I manage to banish him back to where he came from." _Right! He'd kind of forgotten that part in all the excitement. Dipper groaned from his own stupidity. He sighed, for the umpteenth time that day, and noticed that the entry kept going: "_Once the ritual is complete the demon will be bound to the summoner until the death of the summoner, where upon the demon's essence will be destroyed along with the summoner's. Thereby ridding the demon from any reality for the rest of time." _Dipper blanched.

The feeling of a centipede crawling across his body caused him to drop the book with a yelp. He looked down and saw the mark of Bill gone from his palm, and hand entirely. The crawling went all over his body until it stopped at the back of his neck. The slight throbbing disappeared from his skin. A sound similar to cracking glass went through the room.

_"YOU DIDN'T FEEL IT PERTANENT TO TELL ME THAT DETAIL?! OR READ THE REST OF THE SPELL FOR THAT MATTER!" _Bill's scream was coming from the window above his desk. The world had gone slow, but Dipper could see the light coming through the glass had turned blood red. Bill's geometrical body phased through the frame into the room. His entire body had turned the same red as the sky. The eye in the center of his body looked like was close to exploding.

_"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE __**DONE TO ME**__!?"_

"I read the important parts! I was in a rush! I mean normally I would have, but I-I-I was inna rush and, and!" Dipper was cut off by another scream.

_"__**ENOUGH STUTTERING YOU SWEATY MONKEY!**__" _Dipper immediately clammed up. _"You're the luckiest guy on the planet right now, kid. You know that right? If not for your little __**MESS UP**__ I would have already made you a vegetable." _The boy gulped at the thought. _"Now listen up. For the foreseeable future, you are going to be working with me to undo this bonding."_

"But how?!" Dipper suddenly blurted, "We already checked the Journal! What else is there?"

_"Look at that thing kid," _Bill pointed at the Journal, _"You think that three on there is for show? I know there's gotta be something in one of the other ones."_

"I knew it! Where are they though?"

_"How should I know? I'm not feeling as omniscient as I usually do, so we're going to have to do a little investigating." _

"H-How? On what."

_"Not what, Pine Tree. Who. There's a lot of secrets in this town. And a whole population that's been keeping them. I hope you didn't have any plans, kid. This might take a __**WHILE**__."_

With his last words, Bill faded back into the window. The sky went back to the natural glow of late afternoon. The sigil etched itself back onto Dipper's hand; the throbbing commenced with its appearance. Dipper heard the door opening from down stairs. A familiar voice came up the stairs.

"Dipper, you home! We! Are! Back! Grunkle Stan's in a sort of catatonic state, so be nice to him okay?" Mabel was home.

_"Get ready kid," _Bill's voice was back in his head, _"The mind can be a terrible thing to experience! Hahahaha!" _Dipper could feel his tiny legs giving out.

"Whelp this couldn't get any worse." Dipper sighed.

"Dipper, there's a phone call for you!" It was Mabel again, "It's Wendy!" Dipper shot back up. "She said it was important! You weren't taking weird pictures again, were you?!"

_"You think cavity boy got to her! Hahahahaha!" _Dipper dropped back to the ground. His vision started getting fuzzy, before going black.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey! Hey! Dipper what are you doing?! Are you okay?" Mabel asked her brother, leaning over him. He was lying on the ground spread-eagled out on the floor. His eyes were boring holes into the ceiling, both of them bloodshot to the point of bursting. His mouth was hanging open without any care for the drool leaking from it.

"Uh…. Dipper. Please don't be dead. Oh no!" She said with a sudden scream, "You didn't drink the Mabel Juice in the fridge did you?! It's not edible for another 24 hours!" She pulled him up into a sitting position and began shaking him back and forth. Dipper's eyes refocused to the light as she shook him. His drool flew from his lips and onto his sister's "Scout's Honor, but not really" sweater.

"Eeeeeww!" Mabel yelled, dropping Dipper back onto the floor. She hastily wiped the spittle from her sweater.  
"Wh-what's goin on?" Dipper said groggily.

"Wendy's on the phone, dingus! Now go get it! It sounded important," Mabel angrily told him. "Also wipe your mouth off. I don't want you leaking everywhere."

Now Dipper remembered. He was about to die of embarrassment. Nuking Robbie's mind might have sounded good in his head, but dealing with the ramifications of the end game never really crossed his mind.

"Robbie didn't beat you up did he?" Mabel asked him. She sounded worried.

"What!? Oh no! Nah, we… ah, worked through it. You know, like adults. We agreed to disagree and all that, you know. Hehehe!" Dipper sputtered. He didn't want to tell Mabel about Bill. Bill wasn't getting his mitts on her. Not after what he saw the demon was capable of.

"Really?! Oh, Dipper that's great! See I told you. Girl's just hate each other better. I'm really proud of you for doing that." Mabel gave him a toothy smile.

"Yeah, me to," Dipper said rubbing his arms. He hated lying to Mabel; even if it was for the best. It made him feel like he was kicking a puppy. Dipper didn't think he could deal with anymore shame. "I guess I'll go get the phone," Dipper said moving to the stairs. Not having to look at Wendy helped with dealing with her.

Dipper shuffled down the stairs with a dejected look. He saw the phone hanging off the hook on an end table. He spotted Grunkle Stan sitting in his chair, unmoving; his eyes were glued to the television. Mabel said he was catatonic. Peering over he saw the TV was just set to static. Yep definitely catatonic.

Dipper grabbed the old rotary phone and held it to his ear. "Hello," he tried to hide the depression in his voice.

"Hey, dude. It's Wendy. Listen, I gotta question for you," her voice didn't sound mad. Kind of confused, but Dipper couldn't hear any vitriol in her voice.

"Uh huh."

"Did you and Robbie have a fight today?"

"Well, uh. Actually it was more like…. I don't know, not-." Dipper stuttered.

"Because I was just talking to him, and he said you did. But then, he started screaming about a floating triangle ripping his teeth out. What exactly is he talking about?" More confusion leaked into her voice as she spoke.

Before dipper could respond Bill's voice resounded through his head. _"Just lie kid."_

"Uh, Wendy hold on a sec." Dipper put his hand over the phone's mouth piece. "What do mean."

_"I mean just lie. Is it that complicated? Just say that the pocked mark kid is crazy, simple as that. It's not like there's any proof."_

"Well, it's just… I can't lie to Wendy," Dipper harshly whispered.

_"Ya just lied to your sister, kid. Might not wanna play the high road when you've already missed your turnoff." _Bill said matter of factly. Dipper's eyes dropped in shame.

Wendy's voice echoed from the phone. "Hey, Dipper you still there?"

Dipper took in a deep breath and put the phone back up to his ear. "Yes Wendy, Robbie and I were going to fight."

"Dipper! What is wr-!?"

"But we never did. I went to the park to try and talk things out with him, but he wasn't there. I haven't seen him since. I'm really sorry Wendy! He was just saying some really jerky stuff, and then things got out of hand! I didn't want to fight him…"

Wendy was quiet for a few seconds. Dipper could feel sweat starting to form beneath his hat.

"Oh, Dipper…. You know I hate it when people fight." He actually didn't know that. "But… But I'm glad you told me." Wendy spoke in a dejected tone.

"You're not mad are you?" Dipper sounded like he was talking to his mother.

"No I'm not mad. It's just… Listen the next time Robbie does something stupid just tell me okay. Don't go getting into fights. Alright?"

"Y-Yeah of course." Dipper couldn't believe that worked. He was normally a terrible liar.

"Well. At least you actually didn't get into a fight. But what about all that weird stuff Robbie was talking about? Do you know about that?"

"No idea." He tried not to sound too boisterous in his lie. "He does hang out around paint an awful lot. You know, with all those muffin drawings he does."

"Ha! Maybe. I guess he might have just had a nightmare during his mid-day nap."

"Robbie takes mid-day naps?" Dipper said with a chuckle.

Wendy gave a snort, "Yep, since he was kid. If he doesn't he gets cranky." Wendy continued to giggle.

"That's great."

"Don't tell him I told you though. He gets all butt hurt whenever anyone mentions it."

"No worries. My lips are sealed."

"Awesome. I gotta let you go Dipper. My dad just cracked the door frame…. again. See ya."

"Yeah, see you," a big dumb smile spread over Dipper's face. Even in the face of getting in huge trouble, Dipper still loved talking to his crush.

_"That was superb, Pine Tree! I didn't think a little milquetoast brat had it in you. You just lied through your teeth to the girl you love. Takes a real monster for that kind of work." _Bill chimed in his mind.

"I-I don't love Wendy! It's not like that…" Dipper sputter turned into an embarrassed whisper.

_"Hahahaha! Keep the lying to the normal people, boy. It don't work on me. Ya know, being able to read your thoughts and all." _Dipper didn't respond. He looked out the window and saw the sun starting to set. He hadn't realized how much time had passed since this whole thing started. Dipper felt the day's trials beginning to finally take a toll on him.

He just wanted sleep right now. Forget about everything he'd had to deal with for a few hours and enjoy a good dream or to. Dipper dragged his heavy feet up the stairs as fast as his exhausted limbs would take him.

_"Hey! Hey! Dumb kid! You're going the wrong way! The minds of your fellow mouth breathing monkeys are the other way! Out the door! Hey! Hey!" _Bill screamed.

"I need sleep. We'll deal with this tomorrow."

_"What do you mean need sleep? Just don't. What's the big deal!?" _Dipper ignored the screaming in his head. He climbed to the top of the stairs and wobbled into his shared bedroom. Mabel was lying on her bed, admiring a collection of strange looking stitch marks on a sweater in front of her. It may have been a swarm of bees or a rutabaga; Dipper honestly couldn't tell, bring himself to care.

"Wazzup Bro, bro! You headin to bed already? It's only like eight. Hey! Look at my new sweater! Isn't it awesome?! It's a swarm of rutabagas!" Mabel was still wide awake. Turning an old man into a vegetable must not have been as tiring as combing your soul with an evil demon. Go figure.

"Yeah…. Tired….. Need…. Sleeeepppp," Dipper only barely got out his last words as he drifted off into unconsciousness. The last thing he heard was more raving from Bill. Or maybe it was Mabel. It didn't matter.

* * *

Dipper was in a dark place. It reminded him of his house back in California. Lots of windows, a big couch in the middle of the room, not enough bathrooms. It was almost the same. Its difference lied in its scope. Everything was stretched and colorless. Like a boring map painting from a school play.

He looked around and saw a long hallway, a row of hanging lights lined its walls. Walking down the path revealed a countless number of doors, some old and beaten, while others looked freshly painted. A few had labels. Band recital, summer camp, Grandma, etc.

He pulled open one of the doors and a bright light filled his vision to reveal the image of himself and his sister, albeit much younger. They looked to be about four or five. Both of them were outside, in the front yard of their house; Dipper sitting under a tree coloring in a picture book. Mabel was throwing pine cones to squirrels, hoping they'd accept her as one of their own.

Dipper watched the younger versions of himself and Mabel. They looked so peaceful. Just your everyday kids, doing normal things. It reminded Dipper of how weird things had actually gotten. It seemed so surreal to think his life was so benign in comparison to what it was now. Strange creatures, secret societies, evil monsters….

An odd sound filled Dipper's ears. Like bricks being thrown together. He turned his back out into the endless hallway and saw it. A collection of rectangular lights dragging themselves together. Their yellow color and familiar shape tipped Dipper off to what they were.

_"Bill. What's happening?" _Dipper's voice had taken on a slight echo.

_"Ooohhh! You ruined it kid! My big entrance!" _Bill's voice called from the floating shapes. Two bright lines shot from the edges of the bricks and connected at a point. A large unfeeling eye, followed by long spindly limbs sprouted from the triangle.

_"You've got no eye for drama, Pine Tree," _Bill said in his nasally voice.

_"What's happening? What is… all this?" _Dipper waved an arm around him.

_"Ha! Can't recognize something so familiar?! Welcome back to the mindscape! More specifically your mindscape. The personification of your personality, emotions, and memories; taking the form of a familiar area."_

_ "This is my head? It looks so…. bland."_

_ "They all look like that! So don't worry it doesn't mean that you're a boring lump of a person! Don't worry, you are! But the mindscape isn't showing everything that makes you, you right now!"_

Dipper seethed. _"Well what am I doing here? Did you bring me here?"_

_ "Not on purpose. Probably just a side effect from your dumb spell. When your body's 'resting' or whatever your mind doesn't have a place to go. Contact with yours truly probably disconnected your mind from your body. You'll be fine when you wake up. Well, probably. You might just be trapped here forever, and live the rest of your miserable life as an ugly spud! Just like your uncle! Hahahhaha!"_

Dipper sighed at the demon's jabbing. Was this all he could do. Make fun of him and yell weird metaphysical nonsense. Dipper turned around and went back into the main room of his mind. He looked over to the big couch and took a heavy seat on its fluffy mass. It was just like the one at his home. Lumpy and soft in all the right places.

He saw Bill float up in front of him. _"So," Bill stated, "I'm guessing your just going to sit around until morning huh?"_

_ "Why do you care?"_

_ "Because I can't leave, you stupid child! I'm bound to your existence! Remember?! Even in the place I call home, the ego's domain, I'm trapped here with a wet blanket! You are fixing this thing, kid! __**GET ME**__?!" _Bill's anger rose sharply in his voice.

A sigh escaped Dipper's lips, _"Oh don't worry, triangle man. I will." _Dipper closed his eyes. Even though he was technically asleep, he felt exhausted. Sleeping the dream realm was probably impossible, so Dipper decided to just walk around his head. It was better than just listening to a raving shape.

Dipper decided to go into the memory hall again. Maybe remembering the times before any of this mess might put him in a good mood.

_"Hmm. I guess elementary school memories could be cool."_


	5. Chapter 5

Deep in the subconscious of a perpetually paranoid twelve year old boy, two people insistently bickered. One of the people was said twelve year old boy. The other was not a person at all, but instead a floating facsimile of energy and emotion in the shape of a golden pyramid. They both stood, or floated rather, in a large white room, carpeted wall to wall with strangely patterned fabric. Images of equations and scribbled notes filled the headspace of the room.

_"Man, Dip Stick. You sure do have a lot repression in here! Look at all these secret hatreds and mockeries!" _The pyramid, Bill was commenting on the state of Dipper's, the boy's, mind.

_"Hey! It's not that bad. I bet my head's pretty clean in comparison to someone like Mabel's or Stan's," _Dipper defended.

_"You'd be right on the latter! It's a mess in there! I wouldn't know about Shooting Star."_

_ "Wait? You've been in Grunkle Stan's mind?" _How long had Bill been in Gravity Falls.

_"Who said I had?! I know I didn't! Hey what's that?!" _Bill quickly changed the subject to a floating trapdoor near the "wall" of the room. It opened with a snap of Bill's fingers revealing a collection of images, all showing Dipper's crush, Wendy, in some capacity.

_"Hey, get out of there! Those are private!" _Dipper screamed.

_"I don't even know what that means!" _Bill's single eye stretched out like a snake into the trap door. It twitched and moved to look around the expanse of the hidden thoughts. _"Oh ho, ho! This is scandalous Pine Tree! I wouldn't want to be you if these ever got out to this chick! Or anybody, really! You're messed up!"_

_ "I am not!" _Dipper ran over to the floating demon and pulled him from the door. As he threw the shape behind him he saw that Bill was still eye first in the door. _"What the?" _Dipper turned and saw that Bill was also behind him. He pulled again, but was met with a similar result. Another Bill went sailing overhead. And another, and another, until the room was filled with a football team's sized grouping of them.

_"Hahahahaha!" _Every Bill spoke at once, _"It's funny how dumb you are. You might have a mode come of control over what I do in the real world, but remember kid, I'm the master of the mind! In here I'm like a __**GOD! **__Or at least maybe a nightshift manager." _Bill retracted his tendril-like eye from the door. It shut with a snap and floated out of the room.

_"Keep calm kid. If I've gotta wait for your useless flesh to recharge for the day, than I'm gonna do whatever I want in your psyche." _Dipper wanted to wake up. He tired of looking at his memories quick, and he couldn't stand being trapped in his own head. The sound of shuffling paper came into Dipper's ear. Turning he saw all of the Bill's combining back into one.

_"You want to wake up? Then wake up," _Bill pointed his cane above him, _"Look it's about that time for you to shake those noodle legs of yours!" _A large clock was above both of them, it read 9:00 a.m. _"It's your internal clock! Get it?! Hahahaha- What nothing? Come on I spent hours on that one._

_ "How do I wake up?" _Dipper ignored the awful joke.

Bill shrugged, _"I don't sleep. So I've never had to wake up. Just try believing in yourself or something. That usually works for flesh sticks right?" _

Dipper closed his eyes and concentrated on waking up. He felt the world start to shake. His eyes snapped open to reveal the room, and the entire world, was starting to crumble around them.

_"It's the end of the world! About time!" _Bill dropped into one of the larger cracks in the floor, his cane opened up into an umbrella, _"See you at the bottom kid. Hahahaha!" _

Dipper fell through crumbling floor. He tried to hold onto to something, but was unable to get a hold on anything. He looked down to see a large black portal, shooting scary looking lightning and blowing out dangerous winds.

_"Ahhhhh!" _Dipper screamed as he was sucked into the vortex.

* * *

Dipper woke with a scream. Cold sweat covered his body. It felt like he hadn't gotten any sleep. His hand was still throbbing, and a good headache was starting to work itself into a migraine.

"You okay, Brosef?" Mabel had just woken as well. "You have a nightmare or somthin? Was it that one where you're playing your tuba, but your naked, and Wendy's there, and the entire town too?"

"How'd you know about that?" Dipper's mouth felt dry.

"You talk in your sleep." Mabel explained, "It can be really soothing."

"Did I talk any last night?" Dipper wondered if any of his arguments with Bill leaked through.

"Nope! Not a bit. You were out like a light!" Mabel got up from her bed and began to trade her sleeping clothes for a fresh sweater. "What do you think Dipper?" She held up two sweaters, one covered in horseshoes, and the other with a big crocodile saying "Been a while".

"Uhhh. Horseshoes…. I guess," Dipper was never sure about Mabel's fashion sense.

Mabel gasped, "That's what I was thinking! That's that twin telepathy working!"

"Heh. I guess."

Dipper got out of bed to change into a fresh set of cloths. Normally he wouldn't care about wearing old duds, but sleeping in his normal get up made him seem weirdly sweatier than normal.

"I guess I'll be blue today," Dipper pulled on a blue shirt he hadn't seen all summer since then. A fresh set of blue jeans was pulled onto his legs.

"Hey Dipper," Mabel said turning to him again, "What about thi- Oh my gosh! You changed clothes! What's the occasion? You're not dying are you?"

"No!" Dipper hated it when people commented on his dressing problems, "My normal gear is just dirty." He pulled his hat back on. It had fallen off his head in the night. _"That's right, kid! Defend your disgusting habits!" _Bill had decided to chime in.

"Don't you start!" Dipper yelled. He quickly regretted yelling at the invisible thing no one could see.

"Uhh. What?" Mabel said confused.

"Umm… I was talking to… uh… Grunkle Stan!" Dipper covered his tracks expertly.

"He's down stairs though."

"Well… Yeah! I knew that. It's just I heard him from down stairs is all. Listen Mabel I've got some stuff to do today, so I'll see you later." Dipper then took a single suspicious step forward before bolting down the stairs and out the door.

Mabel looked at her brother's wake and shrugged, "Puberty."

* * *

Dipper sprinted out the front door of the Mystery Shack without looking back. Getting this thing done was going to be easier than making up stupid excuses all the time for a screaming triangle in his head.

"Okay Bill. What are we doing? What's first?"

_"Oh, so you wanna work now, huh? I mean I guess we can, but don't you want to do more boring human things like breathe in oxygen to your lungs? Or maybe fill your noise tube with carbohydrates," _Bill said, annoyed at the workings of the human body.

"Well I could. Maybe have a big breakfast with Grunkle Stan and Mabel, take a nice, long shower. I could even have a conversation with Stan about his days in prison."

_"No! Please, no! Fine kid, you win. Let's get moving. You're first target is going to be a baby-man by the name of Gideon Gleeful." _

"Gideon! He's got a journal?!" Dipper thought about that for a second, "Well actually, yeah that does make sense."

_"Good, you already know him. That's one needless explanation avoided," _Bill sounded relieved, _"I hope invading his mind won't be a __**PROBLEM**__."_

"Messing with that psycho's head is probably going to be the only thing we're ever going to agree on. Let's get'em!" Dipper sounded legitimately excited. "So how's this going to go down? Are you going to like cast some spell or something at him? Take him into the dream world like you did with me?"

_"Well first we're going to get his house, right? Still with me? Then you sneak up behind him and brain him a large blunt instrument! Then while he's unconscious I pull out the information I need. Sounds good right?! Feel free to compliment me on my genius."_

"That's crazy! Can't you just do what you did to Robbie?! Pull him into that weird slowed down place, or something?"

_"Yeah, that's not how it works, guy. I can pull anyone into a limited mindscape, but if I want at their juicy brains they need to be asleep. Otherwise the most I'll get is their boring base thoughts."_

"Can't we just get at him while he's asleep?" Dipper reasoned.

_"If you haven't noticed with your fancy double eyes, it's morning now! He's probably awake. If you hadn't spent __**TWELVE **__whole hours __**SLEEPING**__ we could have done it last night!"_

"But-but I had to! Sleep denervation isn't exactly the best thing to work with," Dipper sputtered.

_"Yeah, yeah. Whatever meat bag, let's get moving. We're not wasting any more time. And I don't care how you knock the dwarf out, just __**DO IT**__!" _Bill finished his instructions with one last voice modulation.

Dipper walked along the grass in silence after that. Trying to piece together a plan to knock Lil' Gideon out without hurting him. He hated the little freak with all his heart, but he was still a kid. Younger than him. Even sociopathic children were hard to hit.

* * *

The demon and boy arrived at the Gleeful estate just in time to see Gideon's car salesmen of a father, Buddy, leave for his car lot.

"Be good to your mother now, precious!" the rotund man called into his front door. Dipper waited around the corner for him to leave in his bright blue station wagon. "Good morning young Dipper! I like your new look. Nice change of pace" Dipper hadn't hid well enough.

_"Smooth," _Bill snarked.

"Be quiet," Dipper shushed. He waved nervously as the man drove by. Luckily Gideon's father was much more agreeable than his spawn. The fat man returned the wave and continued to his workplace. Dipper sighed in relief. Sneaking around was not his forte.

He crept along the wire fence of the yard to look inside the front windows. Dipper saw a wiry looking woman handling a vacuum cleaner. Her hair was a literal bird's nest, and her face had a permanent look of anguish plastered across it.

"Yikes! I guess living with someone like Gideon can be stressful," Dipper commented as he moved toward the house. "You sure Gideon's even here? He might be at his tent."

_"I doubt it. His little act is a night show," _Bill said in a surprisingly rational tone.

"Oh, well that's good."

_"Go through the front door."_

"Really. What about the mom?" Dipper asked.

_"I doubt she'll care, Pine Tree. Let's just hope that Gideon is still asleep or on the pot. It'll be easier to take him out. Speaking of which. Did you ever figure out what you're going to do?"_

"Let's deal with that when we get to it," Dipper whispered as he opened the front door. It was unsurprisingly left unlocked. No one in town was going to even think of breaking into the Gleeful residence.

The house was immaculately clean, appearing more like a furniture showroom than an actual home. Mrs. Gleeful didn't pay them any mind as Dipper stepped through the door. Dipper looked at the disturbing looking clown painting in their living room.

_"That looks like the one Grunkle Stan brought home," _Dipper thought. He crept through the house, passing Mrs. Gleeful, who just vacuumed behind him as he walked. He found the kitchen next, it also sported the same color scheme. A loud barking came from deeper inside the house.

"Mother! I'm done bathing! Bring me my breakfast!" it was Gideon. His screaming caused Mrs. Gleeful to drop her vacuum with a shout.

_"Here's your chance, kid. Go get'em!" _Bill was excited.

Dipper gulped and thought of a slapdash plan. He watched Mrs. Gleeful move erratically to the kitchen and begin pouring a bowl of "Smack My Sugar Up" Cereal. Milk spilled over their clean counter and onto the equally untouched linoleum.

"Um, Mrs. Gleeful?"

"Ah!" she dropped the box onto the counter and turned to face him. She stared at him like a starving coyote.

"I can do that if you want. So you can um… vacuum. If you want."

"Really?" Her voice slightly perked. She silently moved from the counter and went back to vacuuming the floor.

"That actually worked," Dipper couldn't believe how easy that was. He picked up the cereal box and finished fixing the bowl. Taking the bowl from the counter he moved from the kitchen back to the living room. He looked about and saw the stairs leading to the second floor.

_"I don't think feeding the kid is going to knock him out, he's not that baby like. Or wait! Maybe you're going to just hit him with the bowl!? A nice crack outta do it!" _Bill spoke as Dipper started up the stairs. He didn't respond. He peered around the corner once he got to the top of the staircase.

Another shriek came from the first door on the right, "Mother! Hurry! Drop that confounded machine and feed me!" Dipper noted that being Gideon's room and moved past it. He opened the door across from the little superstar's room to the room he desired, the bathroom.

"Jack-pot," the creeping boy whispered.

He switched the light on and set the bowl of sugar and milk onto the sparkling sink. Dipper pulled at the mirror above the faucet, seeing the hinges on the side. The medicine cabinet revealed a wide variety of pill bottles and creams. Dipper pulled out several of the bottles, reading the labels of each.

_"Oh, kid this is great! Drugging the little monster is perfect!" _

"Quiet, this is better than actually hurting him," Dipper found what he was looking for as he spoke to the demon, sleeping pills.

_"How'd ya know they had knock out pills? I know already, reading your mind and all, but I want to hear you say it."_

Dipper sighed at Bill, "Mrs. Gleeful is obviously a neurotic mess. She probably needs some kind of medication to get to sleep." He began crushing a small white pill and sprinkling the dust into the bowl. He mixed the drug into the milk, making sure it spread out.

"This should work," Dipper whispered.

He moved out of the bathroom and set the bowl on the ground outside Gideon's door. He knocked once and then jumped back into the bathroom, leaving the door open ever so slightly. The opposing door opened with a crack showing Lil' Gideon in his normal, dandy, attire.

"What in the… Where is that useless woman," Gideon said in his high pitched southern drawl. His no necked head bent over to look onto the ground. He picked up the cereal with a huff. "Ughgh. Doesn't that dumb woman know that Wednesday is eggs day? I guess it doesn't matter, my sweet tooth has been bugging me lately anyways." His voice momentarily picked up a cutesy tone.

_"Even when no one's around he does that dumb act!" _Dipper thought angrily.

Gideon walked back into his room, shutting the door behind him. Dipper moved out of his hiding place and put his ear to the door. He heard the disgusting crunching sounds of Gideon devouring his breakfast.

"This is so gross," Dipper whined.

_"It's your own fault. You could have just smashed the bowl over his head." _Bill did have a point. A violent point, but a sound one.

The sounds of Gideon eating stopped after only a minute or two of loud chomping. Dipper heard a crash, and something tumble to the floor.

"It worked!" Dipper said louder than he meant to. He hastily opened the door to Gideon's room. The small performer was on the ground next to a desk, cereal was spilled all over the floor.

Dipper hadn't expected Gideon's room to be so bare. The only thing that stood out was a model set looking eerily similar to the Mystery Shack. Little figurines of Dipper and his sister were lying next to the tiny shack. He could also see Soos and Wendy figures among the set.

_"Looks like someone was playing dolls before you got here! Hahaha!"_

"This is really creepy, even for him," Dipper said, now really weirded out.

_"Whelp, as much as I love mocking children, let's get down to business. Pine Tree, prop him up."_

Dipper gave an annoyed look to his hand as he pulled Gideon to a sitting position, "I have a name you know."

_"Yeah, and it aint Dipper. Now shut up, and put your hand on his head. The one with me on it." _Dipper complied. The sigil of Bill began to glow a pale blue for a moment before being surrounded in a flame of the same color.

"Ahhh-! Wait. It doesn't hurt."

_"Well that's a crying shame. Forget your lack of agony, child. You're about to go into an awful place," _Bill warned.

"I'm coming too?! Why?!"

_"Because I need someone to help me sift through this little monkey's mind."_

"I thought you were the master of the mind?! What am I going to do?!" Dipper cried.

_"I am. I'm also lying. I don't need you. I'm just bored! Hahaha! Hold onto your thalamus, chump!"_

A strained mumbling came from Gideon's mouth as the flame on Dipper's hand intensified. A similar blue light shot out from the smaller boy's eyes.

"Ahhhhh!" Dipper screamed as he felt his consciousness being ripped from his body.

_"Don't worry! It only hurts forever! Hahahahah!"_

Dipper's screams mingled with Bill's laughter as the world went gray.


	6. Chapter 6

_"Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!"_ Dipper was screaming at the top of his lungs. His eyes were slammed shut, not wanting to see the horrors that made up Gideon's mind. He continued shrieking for several minutes, in the blackness of his own headspace.

Bill floated up beside the boy with a consternated look in his eye. _"Kid. Uhh… Kid! Stop! You're not dying awfully!" _Dipper continued screaming. _"But you __**WILL BE**__! So shut up!"_

_ "Ahhhh!" _He was ignored.

_"Okay, we'll do it the hard way." _Bill snapped his fingers with a frown. With a flash, Dipper's mouth had vanished from his face, leaving only a smooth patch of skin below his nose. Dipper, undeterred, kept on screaming. A series of muffled mumbles came from the now mouthless boy.

It took another minute of muted screams before Dipper realized what had happened. Opening his eyes, Dipper, put his hands up to his face to feel around. Finding nothing he gave Bill a look that signified "Dude, really?"

_"What!? You were annoying, more than usual too. It was the only option!" _Bill sounded oddly legitimate in his claim. It still earned him another annoyed look from Dipper. _"Ah well, it doesn't matter. Just think of this as learning experience! Sometimes you need to keep your mouth shut! Get it! Hahahahah- What nothing?" _Dipper was not amused. _"Take in the scenery, kid. It's good for you or something. Human's like looking at things right?"_

Dipper, now sure that Bill wasn't fixing him any time soon, decided to look around the mindscape he had landed in. There were lights everywhere, of all colors and shades. Most were bright blues, with the occasional yellowish gold peaking around it. They acted as spot lights, beams crossing over him every couple of seconds.

The room itself was also very colorful. Deep purples intermingled with light blues and yellows across a wide wall in beautifully intricate patterns. The walls were covered in pictures of the little man himself, all flattering of course. Gideon's entire life was on the walls. Dipper saw old baby photos next to ones taken as recently to include Mabel.

Dipper shuddered as he remembered their "dates." He also saw pictures of the younger boy's family, Bud and Gideon's mother. They were obviously old, since Gideon's mother didn't look like a train wreck. She looked happy, even content, as she held her child in one shot. Dipper wondered what had happened to the woman.

The sound of light piano came from somewhere deeper in Gideon's mind. It was playing very energetically, but still had a soft tone to it. The song playing reminded Dipper of the theme song that Gideon played for his show, just much more laid back.

_"Come on, Pine Tree, the tour group is now moving this way!" _Bill exclaimed as he started floating down one of the many branching hallways. Dipper sullenly followed the monster.

The hallway Bill had chosen was slightly dimmer than the rest. The scent of an old woman's perfume filled Dipper's nostrils, it made his eyes burn. He grumbled in response.

_"What's the problem," _Bill's eye switched around to look at Dipper. He saw the Pine's boy sniffing and then shuddering from the smell. _"Oh, something clogging up the ol' schnauz? Let me try." _A gigantic nose suddenly grew from the center of Bill's mass. He closed his eye and took in a big whiff. _"Whoa!" _His eye snapped open and the nose fell from his body, crashing like glass on the ground. _"Smells like a funeral parlor! Oooooh! Let's see if the monster's had any one whacked!" _

Bill, switching sides, shot down the hall to a door carved from white oak. A plaque was hung on the outside of the door reading "Memories of Mother".

_ "That's not what I wanted. A dead soul is not the same thing, nor is it related to what I want," _Bill huffed. He continued down the hallway.

Dipper stopped at the white door, giving it a look. _"Might as well," _he thought. He creaked the door open and looked inside. A woman was standing in the middle of a familiar kitchen. She stood at the foot of a burning stove, her hands hovering over a boiling pot. She sprinkled in herbs and spices from a container she held in her swiftly moving hands.

The face was that of Gideon's mother. She looked serene as she cooked what was most likely dinner. Her hair was pulled back into a controlled braid, she looked nothing like she did now. Even her skin looked healthier in comparison.

Dipper watched the changed woman, transfixed, until a sharp cry shook his concentration. A baby was sitting in a high chair, not two feet away from the mother. Her different appearance had distracted Dipper from the obviously placed child.

The chubby baby had ghost white hair, it could only be a few months old. The boy had a strangely, southern sounding cry.

_"Hold on, my sweet. Dinner will be ready soon," _the mother's voice was soothing. It reminded Dipper of his own mom. Gideon's mother pulled out a pronged ladle, one used for pasta, from the other side of the pan. She uprooted several strands of angel hair pasta and placed it onto a small, blue plate. She then blew on the steaming spaghetti for several seconds before placing the plate in front of her son.

_"Here you are, honey," _she cooed to her son.

The tiny Gideon looked at the plate for a moment before suddenly picking up a clump of the pasta and chucking it at his mother's head. The noodles flew right into the mother's hair, causing the young child to giggle delightedly.

_"Oh, baby no!" _his mother chided, _"Food's not for throwing it's for eat-." _She was cut off by another face full of spaghetti. She sighed heavily.

Dipper decided it might be best to shut the door now. If that was the beginning, he didn't want to see what caused the end. The boy reminded himself that he should probably give his mom a call later that day.

Bill had floated about a hundred feet away by the time Dipper had finished watching the memory. The triangular demon was stopped at a darker looking door. Dipper ran up to the shape to see what stopped him.

The door was made of a sturdy looking black metal that was covered iron chains. Dipper was about to ask what it was, as it bore no label, before realizing he didn't have a mouth. The boy inaudibly sighed.

_"Oh yeah. I know a secret door when I see one. This'll have the info we want." _As he spoke, Dipper tried pulling at the chains. They wouldn't budge. _"Figured. Move out the way, kid! Let me show you how a professional does it!" _

The sound of a revving engine came from within Bill's body. Several smaller triangles shot out from his sides and began to rapidly spin around his form. Like a miniature chainsaw, Bill shoved the top of his body at the chains. The metal gave way to spinning shapes, and shattered almost instantly.

The chains fell to the ground with a shaking boom. _"There! Impressed, human?" _Dipper was; he did his best to look as disenthused as humanly possible. He gave Bill an unimpressed shrug.

_"What, you think you can do better!? Alright, try your luck meat boy!" _Bill's arms snaked around Dipper's shoulders and pulled him in front of the door. The door was punched open by a third arm Bill had grown from his back. _"Tell me what you find Pine Tree! Hahahahah!" _Bill threw Dipper into the black expanse of the door.

* * *

Dipper stumbled and fell face first onto the floor of the black room. Unlike the rest of Gideon's mindscape, this room was devoid of any lights, music, or smells. It was a sensory void. Dipper only knew his hand was in front of his face because he was rubbing his nose.

He pulled himself back to standing position; he brushed imaginary dust from his imaginary clothes. Dipper looked in all directions for some sign of life. Even the door out to the hallway had disappeared.

The urge to scream filled Dipper's thoughts. The torment that he'd endured that day topped any kind of embarrassment he may have faced at the hands of Robbie V. He just wanted to be split from that evil little freak. He tried to help, but what did he get?! Ridicule and his mouth erased!

Dipper angrily stomped around the black room, hoping to get some kind of catharsis. He jumped up and down, ran around in circles, and capped it by repeatedly slamming his head into the ground.

_"Just let me yell! Come on! Why!? Why!? Why?!" _the only screaming Dipper doing was in head. He started pulling at his head in rage. _"What did I do, huh?! Well besides torture a perfectly innocent, but really jerky, guy. And lie to my sister, and Wendy and… Man I'm awful." _Dipper fell onto his back; he looked up at the endless expanse of darkness. He slammed his hand onto the cold floor in defiance to whole situation.

The ground gave way to Dipper's fist, cracking like a graham cracker from the force. A look of bewilderment crossed his face before being replaced with fear. The ground continued to crack under Dipper's prone body.

His buttocks fell into an opening, causing a silent gasp. Dipper tried to pull himself from the shattered floor, but was stopped by the ground breaking around his hands. The ground broke apart completely as he continued to struggle.

A bright light escaped from the newly formed hole in the ground. It blinded Dipper as he fell into the space beneath the black room. Wind blew against him as he crashed toward the ground with increasing speed. Managing to turn around revealed a brightly colored room filled with fancily decorated tables and tea sets.

Dipper fell toward the ground at what felt like sonic speed, and suddenly stopped about one inch from the ground. Relief rushed through Dipper on the avoidance of death. He hovered above the ground for a moment before being unceremoniously dropped onto his butt.

After a quick rub of his behind, Dipper, got up to try and explore the new locale. It didn't take long to figure out what it was, a dining room. Besides the fancy table dressings there were also pictures of Gideon… and Mabel all over the walls. They were both sitting and smiling. They were joyfully laughing at each other's company.

_"This is the saddest thing in the world. How creepy can you get?" _Dipper thought. Was Gideon still this attached Mabel? It gave him a chill down his spine. He continued into the creepy room. Muffled noises were coming from behind a large dressing cover. Dipper saw two shadows sitting behind the cover, both of them moving excitedly.

_"Oh please, my darling, you're making me blush." _Gideon's voice came from one of the shadows.

_"No I mean it. You really are the one of the smartest, cutest, bestest guy I've ever met," _the other reminded Dipper of Mabel. The voice was the same, but the tone was stilted and robotic. That and she probably wouldn't say anything like that if her life depended on it.

_"Well if that's the case, please continue." _Even in the mindscape,Gideon's voice was insufferable.

Dipper sneaked around a frilly looking table to the cover. Peaking around the corner, he saw a mind bending sight. Gideon was sitting at any tiny, little table, fully set up for tea. Across from him was one of the most terrifying things Dipper had ever seen. It looked like his sister, but her eyes were devoid of any color or life. They also lacked an iris or pupil, leaving them only as hollow, glass-like models. It was sickening.

Dipper stumbled slightly from the shock, causing the dressing panel to noisily fall over. Gideon's fat neck sharply spun to see the intruder.

_"Dipper Pines!? What on Earth are you doing here!? How did you get in my mind?" _His voice went from shocked to threatening in a second. He jumped onto the seat of his chair to face him. The Mabel doll still stared at him like nothing was wrong.

_"It looks like someone figured out how to access minds. How did you get here?! Some kind of spell?" _Gideon angrily drawled, _"Who put you up to this?! Stanford no doubt! Well I don't know what you or that rat desire from my mind but you won't get it!" _Gideon seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that Dipper didn't currently have a mouth.

Dipper shook his hands and head from side to side. He didn't really know how Gideon was conscious in his own head, but he assumed it was something similar to what he'd done the night before. Gideon gave him a smirk.

_"I bet this is about the Journal isn't it? Did you find the other? I bet you did, and foolishly decided to try and take mine! That's not happening, boy! In fact, I think I'll take yours as recompense for this situation. You not having a mouth is a bit of problem for you telling me where it is, but I can always cut you a new one." _Gideon's smirk grew into a grin.

The short boy rose from his chair into the air. The room began to shake and rumble. The space around Dipper squirmed and morphed, becoming more sinister with every twist.

Gideon flew above Dipper and began lifting the furniture with an invisible force. A chair was sent flying towards Dipper. It smashed into pieces besides him. The older boy dove out of the way of the debris and began running from the floating psychic.

_"You can't run from me in my own mind, Dipper. My amulet may have been destroyed, but it doesn't matter here! I have total control!" _A dining room set was shot at Dipper like a bullet, before smashing right behind him.

_"There's unlimited power here in the mind! I can do whatever I want!" _

Dipper hit the wall of the room. He held himself as close as possible to the cold surface. Gideon floated several feet in front of him.

_ "It'll be a million years before you can face me here, boy." _Dipper's mind grabbed at that statement. "Before he could face him?" Did that mean he had the possibility to? The mind had unlimited power. Maybe it was a two way street.

A dozen knives floated before Dipper. _"Let's see if death still works here,"_ Gideon mocked. Dipper closed his eyes and concentrated. He imagined an impenetrable shield surrounding him, protecting his body from any harm. The whoosh of the flying knives came into his ears, but the blades never hit.

Slowly opening his eyes, Dipper saw the knives stopped right before him. A thin sheet of glass was sitting between the blades and Dipper's body. It had worked. Dipper had made it from his own thoughts!

The smile in Dipper's mind became reality in a flash. His new mouth appearing right where the old one had been. Dipper grinned.

_"How'd do ya like that!" _Dipper was finely able to scream. He rose into the air to face Gideon. The memory of what he saw Bill do before, crossed his mind. In a flash, another Dipper had appeared right next to Dipper. He had, had clones before, and the current copy bore the sign of that experience. A big number 2 was drawn on the copy's own hat. _"You know two's better than one, but how many can we get!" _Two Dipper's became three, then four, and then five. Until there were as many Dipper's as there had been Bill's before.

Gideon's face was locked in shock. _"What are you doing?! How'd you do that!?"_

_ "Maybe you shouldn't monologue when you're going to kill somebody," _the Dipper legion said in a matter of fact tone. Three of the Dipper's flew over and grabbed Gideon by his arms. Another, the original, punched the little psychic in the stomach. _"That's for being really creepy! Also for trying to kill me and stuff!" _

He aimed another punch at the boy, but was thrown off by the same invisible force from before. Gideon had the entirety of imagination to work with, and yet he still just stuck to the tried and true telekinesis.

_"That's enough! I won't be humiliated in my own mind! You think a bunch of copies will beat me!?" _

_ "We kinda hoped it would!" _All the Dipper's yelled.

Gideon gritted his teeth and screamed, _"Well how about this!" _Gideon's size warped and stretched out. In seconds he had grown to monstrous proportions. _"I've always wanted to be tall! It really fits my personality, don't you think!?" _Gideon swatted his hand at the gathered copies like flies. Tens of them flew off into the walls before poofing into dust.

_"Two can play it that way, Gideon. Besides I think I can improve on your design!" _The legion of Pines flew together and grew into their own monster. The copies shaped themselves into a giant Dipper. The gnomes of Gravity Falls did have some good ideas despite being so weird.

_"You call me creepy. Now that's just hypocritical!" _Gideon punched into the Conglomerate Dipper. It collided with the pack of bodies, and was caught in countless tiny hands. Holding the giant Gleeful in place, Conglomerate Dipper began slamming its oddly shaped hands into Gideon's head.

The white haired boy pulled himself from the hold and then charged the Conglomerate. He collided with the group, and smashed through them with a heavy scream. The Dippers flew off into space, popping into nothingness.

_"Maybe I've been over thinking this!" _Dipper yelled, winded. _"I think I should just make this a lot easier on both of us."_

_ "And how's that!? You still think you can beat me?!" _

_ "Yep!" _Dipper waved his hand and Gideon began to sink into the ground. _"Tell me, Gideon do you believe you can dream within a dream?"_

_ "No! It sounds overly complicated!" _Gideon yelled as he struggled.

_"Me to, but I think it might work. Just this once." _Dipper snapped his fingers and Gideon's eyes began to flutter shut.

_"Don't think this is- YAWN – over, Pines! Once I wake up, and then… wake up again I'll get you and your Journal! You can't stop me." _Dipper gave him a smug wave as the boy flew off into another sleep.

As the giant Gideon fell asleep, Dipper saw the Mabel doll wander over to their battleground.

_"Please, Gideon! Don't go to sleep! I'm not done complimenting you yet!" _Its voice still creeped Dipper out to no end.

_"Nope! Not letting this thing stay around!" _Dipper snapped his fingers. The doll vanished into nothingness. _"Whelp, that was awful." _With Gideon defeated, Dipper needed to find Bill, and where to find the other Journal. Dipper sighed in annoyance. He just wanted this to be over.

As if he'd heard Dipper's prairs, Bill broke through the wall like a certain sentient container of juice into the room. His eye was wide with surprise at Dipper, and the remaining copies standing next to the giant, snoozing Gideon jutting out of the ground.

_"Whoa! What happened here?! Looks like you went all mental marine on Gideon! Oh, your mouth's back to. I guess you figured that out. Dang! I was liking the prospect of living with that forever." _Dipper gave him an angry look, mouth and all this time. _"Oh well. Guess what, though!? I found the location of the Journal! It turns out the thing was just on the kid's desk! Can you believe it!?"_

Dipper's eye twitched. He spoke in an even voice, _"You mean we didn't have to be here?"_

_ "Nope!"_

_ "And it wasn't necessary to bring me here and take away my mouth?"_

_ "Not in the slightest!"_

Dipper looked at Bill and then at the rest of the Dippers standing around him. They all gave each other a knowing look and nod. Every Dipper jumped into the air and collided into the gigantic Conglomerate. It looked down at Bill.

_"Neat trick kid!" _Conglomerate Dipper reared its leg back, _"Hey! Hey! Hey! Don't you dare! I could annihilate y-!" _Bill was kicked like a soccer ball into the wall, breaking through again, and flew back through Gideon's mind.

Conglomerate Dipper Gave itself a satisfied pat on its back before vanishing, leaving the original by himself. Regular Dipper thought, was leaving just as simple as everything else? He held his eyes closed and concentrated. He could feel his body returning to him. The feeling of real limbs and air went to his brain. The world of Gideon faded out of the frame with extreme speed, replacing itself with the color and life of the real world.

* * *

Dipper's eyes snapped open to Gideon Gleeful's bed room. Being able to move around as a solid person was a huge relief to Dipper. Even the throb of Bill's sigil felt kind of nice.

_"That was dirty you little brat! Don't think I'll let that happen again!" _Bill's voice was livid

Dipper ignored the demon. He didn't have to worry about his nonsense for the time being. He was in control now. He got up from beside the still sleeping Gideon, who had begun to drool, and walked over to the desk.

Looking about the model of the Mystery Shack, Dipper spotted the Journal under a paint set and container of wood glue. He really wished he would have spotted that earlier. He grabbed the old tome, running his fingers over the golden 2 on the cover. There really was another one.

Stepping over Gideon, Dipper exited the bedroom. Well not before planting a light kick to stumpy child's gut. That had been way too much trouble. He trotted slowly down the stairs and went to the front door. He turned back before leaving, and looked at the still vacuuming Mrs. Gleeful.

"He's asleep you know," Dipper said to the woman, "You can relax now." She didn't respond. He heavily sighed once more and walked out the door. Couldn't help a lost cause he supposed. Outside the door now, Dipper couldn't see Mrs. Gleeful's insane glare noticeably soften as he walked back to the Shack.


	7. Chapter 7

Bill waited in anticipation as Dipper walked down the street. He moved across the boy's body like an ant, crawling to and fro. The incorporeal being was not used to being trapped inside solid objects. Even a possessed body would get stuffy if it lasted too long.

The boy was casually walking down the street. He didn't seem to have a care in the world, despite having a demon stapled to his soul. Bill's eye angrily blinked on Dipper's forearms. It felt like the bite of a fire ant.

"What?" the boy whispered. He didn't want people to hear him talking to himself.

_"What are you waiting for?! Crack that thing open and split us!" _Bill's voice was erratic. _"I can't deal with this anymore! Your skin is like living on a baby wipe! And you're so small! Eat a little, give me some breathing room!"_

Dipper just kept quiet, as an old couple passed by him on the sidewalk. He smiled at them until they passed. "Just shut up!" Dipper angrily whispered, "You're just making this more uncomfortable than it has to be."

_"Hey kid. How about I move down a little lower, below the belt. Might be a nice change of scenery!"_

"No!" Dipper slapped his hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to yell.

_"No?! Then hurry up!" _Bill's mark felt like a cigarette burn.

Dipper rubbed his arms while swiftly walking over to a nearby bench. He pulled out the new Journal, its cover shined in the summer sun. Running his fingers over the number two engraving sent a shiver down Dipper's spine. The book's leather creaked as it opened. The pages were marked with signs of being repeatedly reread. The first couple had been torn out, leaving only chunks of scrap behind.

He flipped through the pages in search for something to do with Bill. Eldritch designs and pictures of strange monsters stopped his train of thought with almost every page turned. Sock Brownies? A collection of sentient tin cans? Cursed Egyptian super termites. Dipper shuddered at the last one.

"Yeesh! You'd think something with such a stupid name wouldn't be this scary," Dipper murmured, looking at the terrifying picture of the bug. Dipper turned the page, covering the scary drawing, and kept going through the pages.

Bill kept skittering over Dipper's skin, causing mosquito bite like itching to go up and down the boy's skinny arm. Dipper scratched at the irritating prickle in response. The demon shot across his cage and onto to the boy's face, right in the middle of the forehead.

_"Well!? Where is it?! Where am I?! I know I have to be in this thing!"_

"Would you cut it out, man!?" Dipper pulled his hat off to rake his nails over his skin. "I'm still searching! Calm down!"

_"I'll be calm when I'm out of this disgusting meat wrap! I can feel your sweat, and –ugugh – other fluids on your skin."_

A blush formed on Dipper's face. "H-Hey! It's completely normal for someone my age to sweat this amount. And what do you mean other fluids!?"

_"Look for the entry kid! Keep __**GOING**__!" _The itch turned into pain.

"Ow!" Dipper cried. He gritted his teeth and kept flipping through the text. His eyes were fixated completely on the book as he searched, completely ignoring the passerby. The street he was on wasn't the busiest in terms of foot traffic, but that didn't mean it was barren.

Other Gravity Falls citizens passed by the Pines boy as he read on the park bench. Strange looks pierced the oblivious preteen. The town's folk usually paid no mind to the Pines siblings. They knew the Mr. Mystery of the shack on the hill, and knew he had family in town, might have even seen them a few times, but never really cared. They didn't remember one of them being this weird, or him having an ugly tattoo in the center of his forehead. Is that why he wore that hat?

Dipper scratched at the Bill mark on his face while he read. He intently scanned each page slowly and deliberately, his index finger ran along each sentence. Dipper always took his time when he read, didn't want to miss anything right? Unfortunately for him it made him look McGucket level creepy when it was coupled with his rampant scratching.

People turned their heads with a cringe as they walked by, all of them thinking things like, _"Kids these days"_ and _"That color does not work on him."_ Dipper looked up when he heard a voice speak to him.

_"Weirdo," _A mother and child were walking past him on the side walk. Had she said that? Dipper gave them a friendly smile, but with the swelling brand on his face, it only made him seem creepier. The mother and child gave him a dual grimace in response.

Bill eyed them as they passed, his pupil following their movements. The mother's eye's bugged out to the size of dinner plates when she saw the little triangle man move. She hoisted up her child threw him over her shoulder like a sack of flower, and took off with a scream. Dipper gawked at the woman as she sprinted down the street.

"What was that?" Dipper confusedly muttered.

_"Pfft! Women! Am I right?" _Bill stated, matter of factly.

"No, no, what was that voice?" Dipper asked confused.

_"What voice? You mean mine?! That's been there for a while, kid, remember?! Yeesh, did Gideon really smack you around that hard!?"_

"Shut up, that's not what I meant," Dipper defended, "It was like I heard her talking, but she didn't open her mouth."

_"Oooohhhh! That's what you meant. Yeah, sorry about that Pine Tree that was me, just a little slip up."_

Dipper wasn't following, "Wh-?"

Bill interrupted him before he could finish his question, _"We're connected at the soul level, it's bound to happen that you'd hear some of the thoughts I read!"_

"I read her mind? Sweet," that was something Dipper wouldn't mind being able to do. He could get the jump on Mabel instead of the other way around, or really get to know what Wendy was thinking.

_"Hey! Hey! Hey! I read her mind, not you, you little skeeze!" _Bill screamed, _"Don't think your some psychic savant because you heard some feedback! This is probably happening because you screwed up that spell! But hey it might not be all bad," _the demon continued, _"Maybe it means that we're slowly being pulled apart or something!"_

"Really?! That's great!"

The Bill sigil waved its hand dismissively, _"Eh, it could also mean we both get torn apart and sent to oblivion. I wouldn't worry about it though, kid. It's a just slip up. Now what were we doing again? Oh right! __**GETTING US ACTUALLY FIXED**__! Keep reading boy!"_

Dipper sighed at the demon.

* * *

Dipper had read through most of the book when he heard a familiar voice from down the road.

"Yo! Dipper-dude! What's up?!" It was Nate, one of Wendy's friends. He was walking with Lee and Tambry, two more of his crush's friends. Nate and Lee both gave the boy a wave as they walked towards him. Tambry's eyes darted up from her phone for a millisecond to spy at Dipper for a second, it was like a wave, but not really. The three teens stopped at the bench.

Nate spoke in his normal jovial tone, "Hey, man. How ya doin?"

Dipper closed the book with a thud and roughly placed it beside him. Even if she wasn't with them, looking cool in front of Wendy's friends was always a matter of importance. After a moment of clumsily trying to save… whatever kind of face Dipper thought he might have lost by just sitting on a bench, he responded. "I'm good."

"Sweet! Hey listen," Nate suddenly whispered, "You seen Robbie lately?"

More sweat started to form on Dipper's forehead. Bill's mark visibly frowned in anger at the sight of more human fluids. "Uhhh… No, haven't seen him." Dipper said in the smoothest manner possible.

"Crap. He hasn't been answering any of texts or calls since yesterday. Not since he started raving about some weird stuff he saw in the park. Someone said they saw him with you."

"Nope! Didn't see him at all yesterday. Yep! Not at all," Dipper squawked back a little too quickly. He tugged on the neck of his shirt and wiped off some sweat from his forehead. His bangs now better showed off the Bill mark on his head.

"Well worth a shot. I guess we'll see you later th- Woah! Dude!" Nate pointed at Dipper's forehead. "Is that a tattoo?!"

It was then that Dipper remembered that he hadn't put his cap back on. He quickly covered up Bill.

"Uhh… No! It's just you know, some scribbling or something…" Dipper trailed off.

"Dipper, you've got ink?! Dude, let me see." Lee arced over his shorter friend with one of his long arms and pulled Dipper's arm from his face. The Bill sigil stared back at the small group. Its "face" was expressionless. Dipper closed his eyes as they looked at his "ink".

"Man that is sweet!" Lee exclaimed.

"Really?" Dipper cracked his eyes open in surprise.

"Oh yeah man," Nate said looking into Bill's eye, "I didn't think Crazy Jim would let a kid get a tattoo."

"Crazy Jim?"

"Yeah, you know? Crazy Jim? You'd have to have met him if you got a tattoo. He's the old, bald guy with the missing eye. Other eye is always red for some reason. Think he said it was a "Reoccurring Burst Blood Vessel" or something. Whatever that means."

"Uhhh." Dipper was confused.

"Or was it Crusty Jack? The guy with a hook for a hand. Surprised they still let him around kids."

"Yeeeeeah. It was that guy," Dipper slowly agreed. Whatever it took to look like a cool, fully mature, teen, guy; that was his motto.

"Awesome, little dude. Well we're gonna get goin. Thompson's gonna chug a whole tub of movie butter… again." Nate stopped for a second, "Hey, you wanna come. Since Robbie's vanished we need another man-." Tambry loudly coughed. "Uhh, person to help laugh at him. You in?"

Dipper looked at them and then the book. He needed Bill off of his head, and body in general. But he also wanted to be accepted by the group of teens that his crush spent most of her time with. The debate did not last long.

"Sure, let's go." Dipper got up from the bench, putting the book under his arm.

"Oh yeah! Let's do this!" Lee and Nate both yelled simultaneously. Tambry's lips curved up by a micrometer behind her phone. The teens, plus one, continued down the road to watch an overweight young man drink butter.

Bill remained silent as his dumb fleshy host ignored his job. He could drag Dipper into the mindscape, but that wouldn't solve anything at moment, he'd probably fall into traffic, and while that was a hilarious thought he didn't want to test that last bit of the kid's spell and get dragged into oblivion. He didn't have a good way to get a hold of the kid's body then, but he had a good idea.

As they chatted, neither Dipper nor the teens noticed the Bill tattoo had turned an ugly shade of red.


	8. Chapter 8

The teens had led Dipper to the backlot of the local movie theater. Thompson, who Dipper just assumed liked to get humiliated by the rest of Wendy's friends, had been waiting for them in an ill-fitting usher uniform next to a large metallic drum labeled "BUTTER."

Thompson's greeting wasn't even out of his mouth before Nate and Lee had him on the ground, and the butter drum hoisted over their "friend's" head.

"Guys, I'm not sure if we should do this now. My break's almost over. And my boss is gonna miss that butter. So will the patrons, and I don't think I can have that on my head," the teen's voice cracked like fine china as he spoke. His sweat was making a puddle around him on the ground.

"Thompson, don't worry about it. What's one ten gallon drum of butter? It'll be fine," Lee assured.

The other teen gripping the butter agreed, "Come on Thompson, we wouldn't want to disappoint our esteemed guest." Nate motioned to the only non-teen in the group. Dipper Pines stood beside Tambry, watching the older boys begin opening the container.

Dipper was a little nervous around the teens without Wendy. This was the first time they'd ever spoken to him without her around. Messing this up with them was not an option, Dipper had trained for this moment for his entire life….. okay it was two weeks, but that's like years in summer time.

"Yeah Thompson do it!" Dipper yelled at the overweight clerk. "Thompson! Thompson! Thompson!" Dipper had heard that chanted in Thompson's van, he hoped this was just something they did.

Nate and Lee grinned with excitement at the familiar chant, and joined in. "Thompson! Thompson!" The butter began to slide out of the drum into the waiting teens opened jaws. Thompson closed his eyes and accepted his buttery fate like he had so many times before.

Watching Thompson gulp down ten gallons of butter without stopping would go down as one of the most disturbing things Dipper had ever seen in his entire life. Even the other teens were a little put off by their punching bag's butter drinking skills. They'd seen him do it before, just never this much at once, or this willingly.

The dour faced Tambry snapped several photos of the disgusting act. Everyone in the group shuddered as Thompson swallowed the last drop of yellow butter.

"Ughgh! Dude that was sick!" Nate yelled, letting go of his side of the drum.

Lee let go of his side in turn. "Yeah, let's go guys. That was a little too gross, even for

us."

"Hey gu-Ughgh!" Thompson was cut off by the empty drum smashing into his face.

"For you maybe," Nate snarked, completely ignoring Thompson.

"Shut up!" Lee punched his friend in the arm. The two boys walked away from Thompson, who had stopped moving. Tambry got up from the sidewalk and moved behind them in step. Dipper wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. That had gone surprisingly well.

If things kept going like this, getting accepted as a regular hanger-on was a distinct possibility. Nate and Lee continued their roughhousing as the group walked down the street.

"So….What now?" Dipper asked. He did his best to not sound desperate. Nate and Lee ignored him and kept on playfully punching each other.

"Uh, guys?" he asked again.

"Don't bother. They're practically deaf when they're like this," Tambry spoke up from behind her phone. It was the most he'd ever heard her speak at one time.

"Oh, so what are we doing then?"

"Probably nothing, again," the girl huffed, "It's like this most days. We hang around somewhere for a little while. See if Thompson will do something disgusting. Then wait for Wendy to get off from work. Then hang around some more," Tambry listed.

"You all do this every day?"

"Most days. Sometimes Thompson has work, or Wendy's with her family, so we- Hold on," her phone had chirped. Her eyes shot to the flip phone, her thumbs moved rapidly over its tiny buttons. She hit 'Send' and continued, "Sorry. So we just hang around some more."

Dipper wondered if this what average teen life was like. Just walking around all day, not doing anything productive, ridicule each other, then just sit around not doing anything for hours at a time. He sighed and took a deep breath. He was going to have to get used to this, for Wendy.

"Alright, well where are we going to hang out today?" Dipper tried to sound natural.

Nate finally tore himself from his punch-fest with Lee and answered, "We were going to hang out at Robbie's place, but since he's like crazy or something I guess that's out."

"We could go to my place," Lee offered.

"Yeah and deal with all your mom's cats? I don't think so," Tambry sarcastically drawled.

"We don't have that many!" he defended.

"Isn't it like fifteen or something, dude?! Fifteen of anything is way too much!" Nate countered his friend.

"We could go to the Shack?" Dipper softly interjected. The teens stopped arguing and turned to the tween.

"Really?" they sounded shocked.

"Yeah sure, why not?"

Nate scratched his head, "I thought that weird old dude didn't like us hanging around there."

"I'm sure he'd make an exception for me and my," he then hopefully spoke/asked, "Friends?"

They looked at him for a second before responding. "Duuude! That'd be sweet!" Lee yelled.

"Yeah, let's go!" Nate agreed.

Tambry turned from her phone and gave him a small smile. They continued down the street, and started making their way to the Mystery Shack. During all of the talking and butter drinking, no one had noticed that Bill had vanished from Dipper's forehead. He had moved down onto his chest. Right over his heart.

* * *

"There is no way I am letting those kids in the Shack," Stan said while shaking his head, "They're too much of a distraction for Wendy while she works. She gets all lazy and doesn't do anything as soon as she sees 'em." Dipper couldn't tell if Grunkle Stan was being sarcastic with that last comment.

Dipper had told the three teens to wait outside until he got the okay from Stan. Stan had been upstairs, he had finally shaken from his catatonic state. He had managed to pull himself up the steps in about an hour.

"Come on Grunkle Stan! You let Mabel have friends over!" Dipper argued.

Stan responded without missing a step, "Yeah two of'em. There's like what, five of those beatniks?"

"It's just three. Thompson's catatonic and Robbie's… Not around."

"Thompson?"

"The fat one."

"Oh!" Stan thought for a second, "Isn't Robbie that kid you were gonna fight yesterday? How'd that go?" He had dropped his normal, grumpy tone. Stan sounded legitimately interested for once.

Dipper went through his options. He couldn't tell Grunkle Stan what he'd actually done, he wouldn't believe him even if he did. Dipper's voice didn't shake as he spoke. "We settled it like men," he sounded sure of himself.

Stan beamed at him with pride. "Hahaha! That's my boy! Settled it like men! Ha!" Stan slapped him on the back. "So did you knock him out cold, or what? Come on kid, I want the gory details!" the old man rubbed his wrinkly hands together in anticipation.

"I, uh… I wouldn't say it took one hit, but it let's just say Robbie's got a glass jaw if you get my meaning." Dipper wasn't used to lying being this easy.

"Haha! That's great kid!" He patted Dipper on the back again and started to move around him to go downstairs.

Dipper turned to catch him, "So can they come in? My friends I mean."

"Huh? Oh whatever kid." Stan started, very slowly, down the stairs.

"Really? Thanks Grunkle Stan."

"Thanks for what? Here get going. I'm gonna need the whole width of these things when I move," Stan motioned to the stairs.

"Do you want some help?" Dipper asked as he moved past the struggling Stan.

"You've got your way, and I've got mine. Now if you excuse me, this is going to take all of my concentration." Stan then began inching one of his legs down a single step.

"Uhhh. Got it." Dipper scooted past him to the living room.

Dipper walked out the front door and saw the three teens sitting on the front stoop looking bored. He gave them a thumbs up and waved them inside.

Lee and Nate jumped up and rushed into the house, each giving Dipper a high five as they went through. Tambry followed behind, she gave him an almost unnoticeable smile. The teens walked into the living room and took seats around the old television set. Dipper looked on and grinned to himself; he was so in! There was no way these guys would think that he was just some weird tagalong kid that hung around Wendy now.

He turned to follow them inside and felt an awful burning on his chest. Lifting up his shirt he saw that Bill's mark had turned an ugly red. He hadn't noticed that he'd moved. The demon's brand looked livid.

"Bill!" Dipper tried to whisper, "What are you doing?!"

Bill spoke for the first time in hours, _"What am I doing. __**WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?**__" _The mark burned like fire, causing Dipper to silently gasp.

_"You've been wasting hours of our precious time! __**MY **__precious time with these hormone fueled monkeys!" _Bill slid over Dipper's skin like a slug back up onto his face. _"You are going to find out how to fix this, __**NOW!**__"_

"Fine, fine I got it," Dipper quietly groaned, "Just let me get somewhere quiet first." Bill didn't respond, but his host took the silence as an order to get going.

"Hey guys! I'm just gonna go get something from upstairs real quick. You all hang tight." Dipper rushed up the stairs before the teens could react. They all shrugged at each other before turning back to the television.

Dipper climbed past the still descending Stan to the upstairs bathroom. He slammed the door behind him, locking it tight. He opened the book and started flipping through the final pages. Shock monkeys, deathshrooms, a weird, unfinished diagram, but no Bill. The boy was about to give up before he finally found an entry on the demon.

The Journal didn't have Bill's name, just a label of Creature #326. Dipper could tell it was the demon from all of the iconography of his current mental resident. He saw several diagrams relating to Bill along with paragraphs on what he was like. This Journal's age definitely showed against Dipper's #3. The entry referred to him pleasantly, calling him a friendly spirit.

He continued reading until he found the summoning ritual for the demon. It spelled out similar rules and ingredients that the ritual Dipper had used. In fact the only difference was the lack of an incantation and an extra ritual circle for the updated version.

The entry ended abruptly, the final paragraph was just praising Bill for being so kind and forgiving before trailing off the page in increasingly shaky handwriting. Dipper looked up from the book and shouted in frustration.

"There's nothing?!" Below, the teens looked up and then at each other. They guessed being regular was a big deal for the kid.

Dipper slammed the book shut and sighed. He felt Bill's mark shaking over his body.

_"What do you mean there's __**NOTHING**__" _Bill shouted within Dipper's head.

"There's not a thing on how to unstick us. Nothing, it doesn't even have all the stuff the other Journal has." Dipper informed.

_"There has to be something in there Pine Tree! Look __**HARDER**__!"_ Bill raged.

"I looked! There's nothing here, Bill. We'll just have to find something else," Dipper sighed at the demon's tantrum.

_"No!"_ Bill screeched,_ "You're just not taking this seriously! Fine! If you just want to have fun with those dumb little toads, than it's time for __**MY TURN**__!" _Bill shot over Dipper's skin at high speed, leaving a painful red streak in his wake. The demon moved up to Dipper's scalp and began circling the boy's head.

"Ah! What are you doing! You know this hurts right?!" Dipper yelled. Bill ignored his cries and continued to shoot around his skull like a rocket. It felt like someone was hammering nails in his brain. Dipper turned on the sink to get some cold water, to try and alleviate the burning.

Splashing water didn't do anything besides aggravating Bill, who sped up his revolutions around his noggin. Dipper banged his head on the sink in exasperation. His vision was going blurry.

"What are you doing?!" Dipper screamed. The light of bathroom was getting dim, he was losing consciousness. He struggled to keep himself standing, but fell to the tiled floor in a heap. A knock came from outside the door.

"Hey Dipper, you alright in there?" It was Stan.

He was given no response. Dipper's body was still for several seconds before a spark of life shook through him like he'd been hit by a cattle prod. His tiny arms pulled himself up onto the sink, his legs barely holding him up.

Shaggy brown hair was reflected in the grimy mirrors surface, hanging over Dipper's soft face, covering more than his namesake. He lifted his head to the vanity. Yellow eyes greeted the boy. A thin grin stretched slowly over his face.

"Dipper! You fall in or what?!" Stan pounded on the door.

"Oh don't worry! I'm fine! Fine and dandy," Bill called back. "Just freshening up! Hahahaha!"


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: If any of the few that read this think this story can be any better, please tell me. Constructive criticism is the best kind. Also, thank you so much for the kind words. It really does help.

* * *

Dipper stared at himself in the mirror. His vision wasn't coming from his eyes, but lower on his body, a little bit to the right, at a ninety degree angle. It was like someone had shoved his face down onto his arms. No sound came when he tried to scream, only a familiar cry in his mind.

_"W-What just happened?! Bill, what was that?!"_

In the mirror Dipper saw his face stretched into a terrifying grin, his eyes had become yellow, like eggs. An almost rectangular pupil peered down onto his right arm. Dipper felt himself being moved, like someone was picking him up. His view was shifted from the mirror to looking directly at his smiling face.

"Like I said, it's my turn for some fun. How's it feel now that the skin's on the other sentient being eh, Pine Tree?!" Bill sneered into the mirror.

_"W-What?!" _Dipper could only sputter in confusion.

"Ha! Your voice still cracks without vocal cords!"

_"What was that, Bill?! What did you do?!" _Dipper ignored the demon's jibe.

Bill rose Dipper closer to his stolen face, his voice took on a sinister timbre. "I switched us, Pine Tree. Now you're the tacky prison tattoo and I'm in control." Bill turned the hand of his new right arm, moving Dipper's view from his face to the mirror. He saw a symbol on his hand; it was a cartoony picture of his head, smiling at the world. Only his drawn eyes showed his true emotions, they shook with fear.

_"H-How!?"_

"Oh, I'll tell you how you dumb monkey! Your ritual didn't work!" Bill screamed.

_"What?! Then why are you even here then?" _Dipper yelled.

"Well it sort of worked," Bill corrected himself, "It worked enough for me to get stuck on your sweaty body, but if what that Journal said was accurate than you'd have total control over me, which you obviously don't. We're more like psychic Siamese-twins than master and servant. Well we were until now! Hahaha!"

Dipper reeled at that revelation, _"That doesn't explain what you just did though!"_

Bill snorted, "What you think I'm gonna tell you that?! Ha! You're stupid, you know that?" Bill moved Dipper back down to hang loosely from his possessed body. He turned from the mirror and began moving towards the door.

Dipper frantically called out to the demon, _"What are you doing!? Where are we going?!"_

"It's time to greet the world, Pine Tree!" Bill answered happily. He then walked right into the bathroom door like it wasn't even there. Bill looked at the door quizzically before snapping his fingers in realization. He moved slightly to the left and once again walked right into the door. Dipper spoke to Bill like he would a child.

_"Uh, Bill? You have to open the door."_

"Right! Corporeal now. Gotta move the door." Bill nodded in agreement. The demon began clawing at the door, scraping up and down like a cat at a scratching post. He continued on like this until the door opened up from the outside, by a very confused Stan Pines. Bill didn't seem to notice the difference in the door's wood and Stan's wrinkled cloths, and continued his scratching.

"Uhhh. Dipper? Y'all right there, bud?" Stan eyed his grand nephew's cat-like behavior. Bill looked up at the old man, his yellow eyes widened in surprise at the man's appearance. Bill jumped back from Dipper's uncle, a twinge of fear was noticeable in his steps.

Dipper tried to cry out to his uncle, _"Grunkle Stan, help! That's not me! It's something el- Ow!" _Bill swatted the Dipper sigil like a mosquito.

"Hello, Stan Pines! How are you doing to-day!?" Bill's voice oddly fluctuated with every word.

"I'm good, how about you?" Stan asked warily, "You, uh, havin' some trouble in there, kid?" _"What is up with this kid today? I swear everyday it's something," _Stan thought exasperated.

Both Bill and Dipper had heard the thought as if he'd just spoken it to them. Bill had "slipped up" again. Despite being trapped in his own body Dipper couldn't help but smirk at the demon's slip. Maybe that meant Bill's hold on his body could be broken.

_"Don't get excited Pine Tree, one or two more slip ups because I have to focus on moving your weird noodle arms is a fine trade off." _Bill shot at the trapped soul before continuing his conversation with the geriatric.

"Oh I was just relieving myself of human waste, like we all do." Bill nodded along to his words. He moved past Stan, shakily, and hilariously shuffled over to the stair case. "If you excuse me, I will now be joining my friends," he made quotation marks with his fingers when he said friends. He did a one-eighty and fell face first down the stairs, like a four foot domino. Stan looked on with a finger raised in slight protest and mouth agape.

As he watched his nephew fall down the steps with very painful sounding thuds echoing up the stair case, Stan shrugged in apathy. "Puberty," he muttered, walking into the bathroom.

* * *

Dipper and Bill crashed down the stair case in under thirty seconds. Each step they fell down caused Bill to chuckle. The pain was an amusing distraction from the sighting of Stan Pines. Bill knew he'd being seeing the old codger, but not this soon. He'd have to find a way of ignoring him until the separation was complete.

Bill thought for a moment, as he laid at the bottom of the stairs, face shoved against the cold floor. He couldn't remember why he was so worried about the interference of Stan Pines. The demon hadn't been able to think as omnisciently since the ritual. He'd have to fix that if things were going to keep going like this.

_"Ughgh… Bill," _Dipper groaned from the limply splayed out right arm, _"Why?" _Dipper asked, despite knowing full well he wouldn't get a good answer

Bill ignored his body's rightful owner and pulled himself back to standing. His smiling face inched toward the archway leading to the living room. The group of teens were still sitting around the old television set. Lee and Nate both sat on the arms of the musty recliner in front of the television, while Tambry sat to one side of the dinosaur skull next to the chair, her eyes never leaving her phone's glowing screen.

Nate noticed Dipper's terrifying grin from the corner of his eye. "Hey, Dipper-Dude! Man did you fall in or what?" the tattooed youth chuckled at his own joke.

_"Guys, help! It's not me!" _Dipper was ignored once again by the corporeal.

"Oh, you know," Bill said flippantly. He sauntered over to the arm chair and sat himself between the two boys. "Butt stuff." he sighed out as he sank into the chair, making sure to grind the Dipper mark against the abrasive material of the recliner.

"Pfft! Yeah!" Lee snorted.

"So tell me what are you meat bags watching? Gas lamps? Paint drying?" Bill looked at the teens expectantly.

"Um, no just some TV, man," Lee responded slowly. He motioned to the flashing box's current programing. It was an infomercial featuring everyone's favorite psychotic salesmen, Bobby Renzobbi. He was shilling his latest product, The Cat-O-Pult, which was a small trebuchet meant for launching home pets out of windows. It was only $29.99, if you called right now.

"Ha, so this guy's still ticking, huh?" Bill chuckled.

"What do ya mean?" Nate asked, curious.

Bill gave a Glasgow quality grin to Nate, "Oh, you'll love this. So this guy on your boob-tube has been doing this for years! Way before the thing was even invented!" The teens all looked skeptical at Bill's claims, but didn't interrupt. He continued, "Way back in…. Oh, let's say July 17th, 1849 when this fair little hamlet was founded." Nate and Lee looked at each other wondering what the term hamlet meant.

"Mister Bobby Renzobbi, or Robert Zobbizmen as he was known then, was a powerful wizard." the teens looked at the Bill/Dipper with increasing confusion. "He specialized in hypnotizing people into buying random junk off the side of roads! I thought he'd gone up and died when that angry mob had chased him off a cliff! I guess he finally figured out how to fly! It's all in the lungs ya know." Bill ended his story by knowingly taping the side of his nose.

The teens looked at him with mouths agape before Nate spoke up, "Dude…. that's not true right?" Bill let that float for a few seconds, letting the tension build up nicely.

Bill's yellow eye's widened to the size of dinner plates, "Nope!" Bill grabbed the blocky remote from the seat cushion, and chucked it at the TV. The teens watched the old piece of plastic soar over their heads and crash into the old television's glass screen. The shattering sound echoed throughout the Shack.

"Let's do something else! Something fun!" Bill jumped up from the recliner.

The teens had shrunk into their positions, scared by the sudden vandalism. They stared at the young boys shining eyes. They looked different, almost inhuman.

Bill continued, "How about we all go into the woods and have a little scavenger hunt!"

"Uh, Dipper. I think we might be a little old for that," Nate said warily, "Besides, we uh- we don't have anything to look for."

"Oh, don't worry about that! I've got a few things we can all look for," Bill's voice took on a more menacing timbre. He waved his arms around, motioning for them to get up. The teens looked a little hesitant, but moved when the tween started pulling at them.

"Like what?" Tambry asked as she was roughly pulled from her seat.

"Oh you know! Bottles, shiny rocks, old books, obvious pieces of metal made up to look like foliage….. Anyways! Come one, let's all get going! There's nothing more fun than running around like disgusting pigs covered in filth!" Bill pushed at the teens, until he had shoved them out of the Shack.

A yell came from inside the house, "What happened to the TV?!"


	10. Chapter 10

_"Guys! Guys! It's! Not! Me!" _Dipper had been yelling since his friends had been forced out of the Shack by Bill. His voice echoed in his metaphysical ears. Not one of the teens responded to his screams.

"Cut it out kid," Bill mumbled, "You'll give yourself an aneurism." Bill tapped the boy's possessed head.

_"What?!" _Dipper yelled.

"Nah, I'm just joshin ya. You'll be fine…. Maybe. I dunno. Those slip ups might rip your soul up a little. Who knows! Don't worry though it'll just need a little patch work after all this!" He looked at the little Dipper tattoo and gave it a big thumbs up.

A ghostly sigh exited Dipper's lips, or rather, lack thereof. He took a look around from his trapped position. They were still in the Mystery Shack's backyard. The group had only been walking for a few minutes; Bill had said that the best place to "Scavenger Hunt" would be in the "creepy part" of the forest, both said with insanely over the top finger quotes.

Dipper knew the creepy part of the forest well, it was where he found the Journal in the first place, in a weird metal compartment. He had searched around that spot for hours, but hadn't found anything else of note.

"Hey dude, how much farther we gotta go?" Dipper heard Nate's voice.

"Oh come on, Nathan! Everyone loves a good round of tendon movements!" Bill exclaimed.

"What?" Nate sounded confused.

Bill rectified his statement, "Sorry. I meant 'walking'. That's it! Walking! Keep walking, Nathan!" He waved his noodle arms out in front of him, like an epileptic air traffic controller. Nate gave the boy a wide eyed stare, and walked back over to the other teens.

It took another ten minutes before Bill stopped the group. He clambered onto a large boulder, with surprising agility; his tiny arms and legs spidering up the rock. Bill stood stock straight at the top of the boulder and yelled at the teens.

"Okay boys and girl! We are here!"

Tambry sighed in relief, both Lee and Nate looked at each other nervously. Nate took a step forward. "Um, dude… it's been, um, cool hanging out with you, but, uh… this isn't really our bag. Ya know?" He looked at Lee and Tambry as he spoke, "Maybe we should like, just go back into town." Lee nodded along to his friend's words, Tambry just tapped on her phone apathetically.

_"Oh thank god," _Dipper sighed. _"They'll leave, and then I talk Bill down."_

"Fat chance, Pine Tree," Dipper was surprised how threatening Bill's nasally could sound.

Lee spoke up to the demon, "Uh, are you talking to us, or yourself? Cause I'm not a tree, and I don't think Nate's a tree." Nate shook his head. "I mean maybe Tambry, but I-."

_**"SILENCE ASHLEE!" **_Bill's voice became wholly inhuman. His thin pupils rolled back into his head, showing blackened veins.

The teens recoiled in horror. Nate ran behind Tambry with a yelp, who in turn dropped her phone and tried to get behind Lee. Lee was frozen in shock. "H-How do you know my full name?"

"What part of _**SILENCE **_did you not understand?!" Lee's mouth snapped shut. "And I know your name because I stole your wallet." Bill pulled Lee's wallet from his pocket and threw it at the thin teen. It smacked into his monstrous nose and slid onto the ground.

"Also, ten bucks. That's it?! What kind of privileged white kid are you?!" He got no answer, "Anyways, let's get down to business, flesh bags! You're gonna be lookin for a hidden bunker and or switch to said bunker, probably disguised as some kind of twig or log! It's gonna be hard to find, but don't worry I think you'll be able to do it!" He was ridiculously enthusiastic, "This is a big forest, and I have no idea where it'll be, so it could take hours if not days to find it!" The teens looked like they wanted to speak up at that, but were cutoff, "But don't worry, you'll have each other to help! So it shouldn't take much time at all!"

"Uh…." they all stammered in unison.

_**"GO!" **_They all scattered at Bill's hellish scream. As they ran, they heard Bill's demented laughter behind them.

Dipper finally spoke, _"Bill, what's exactly your plan here? They don't know anything about the Journals or this stuff. And what do you mean bunker? _Dipper tried reasoning with the demon, _"I've already checked, I couldn't find anything else out here."_

"I. Am. Splitting. Us," Bill enunciated every word painstakingly, "I've got one more idea on how to split us, without the book. And we're lucky those hormonal monkeys scare easy. Using them to help me, help us, Pine Tree, is a good thing. Don't get your ectoplasmic panties in a bunch, it'll be fine. And besides," he looked directly into the Dipper tattoo's eyes, "Even if they don't find anything, it'll be funny to watch'em run around for a few days! Hahahaha!"

The Dipper tattoo's smiling face turned into an anguished frown.

* * *

Nate looked up from a moss covered log with a frown. He checked his watch, 3 hours. He'd been searching for three freaking hours for some kind of "switch" for Dipper, who was apparently some kind of Omen, Exorcist freak kid, and he wasn't having any kind of luck.

The teenager peered over at Dipper, or Bill, who was still on that boulder, now lazily laying on it. His frown deepened at the sight. Here they were, him and his friends searching out of the goodness in their hearts, and uncontrollable fear, for….. he wasn't actually sure what, but none the less he was searching for it for a kid they barely knew, and he wasn't even helping.

Nate angrily stomped over to the boulder and yelled at the boy, "Dude! Come one, it's been like three hours or something, can we stop now, please?!"

Bill called back down, "No Nathan, no you can't!" Nate gritted his teeth at his full name. Only his grandma could call him that.

"You know what man! Screw this! I'm out!" he screamed.

Bill stood up, but didn't look at Nate. "Oh no you're not," he said in a matter-of- fact tone.

"Or what!? You're like twelve!? I can take you dude!" He crossed his tattooed arms over his thin frame.

Bill's neck cracked and to Nate's horror, turned until his face was staring at him. His body hadn't moved in the slightest. The boy's mouth dropped open and an unholy voice exited the gaping orifice, _**"OR I'LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!" **_

"Ahhhhhh!" Nate screeched. His limbs reflexively scrambled to get away, his flight response taking full control. He managed to get on all fours and rocketed away.

A sickening crack came from Bill's neck as he turned the head back to its proper facing. Somehow, there was no serious damage to the possessed boy's body. Dipper's voice echoed into Bill's mind.

_"Bill! What are you doing to my body!? Normal people can't do that you know!?" _

Bill laughed, "Ha! Please kid, I might not have all my normal omnipotence at my fingers, but I can work a puppet. Your disgusting, sweaty body will be fine. Besides, wasn't that great?! Ya think he pissed himself?"

_"Eew! I don't know! You probably traumatized him for life," _Dipper replied disgustedly.

"Ya think!? Aw, that'd be great," Bill said wistfully. Dipper could only groan in response.

* * *

Nate ran through a densely packed thicket of trees into a clearing. He saw Tambry sitting on a stump, eyes on her phone, sifting through a pile of rocks with her foot. She was trying, in vain, to get a signal, but the canopy of leaves and branches were blocking her efforts. A "No Signal" error came up for what felt like the millionth time.

Lee wasn't too far off from her, his head lulled against a rock. He was sporting a thousand yard stare, an occasional mumble would exit his lips. Something sounding like, "Don't call me Ashlee."

Nate ignored Lee and trudged over to Tambry. He heaved himself onto the stump next to her, a tired sigh dropped out of his mouth. He looked over to the girl, hoping for some feedback, but got nothing. He sighed again, this time louder.

Tambry rolled her eyes and addressed the boy, "Did he do the scary face at you again?" she asked, not really caring. Another "No Signal" was taking up most of her attention.

"Yeah," he sadly admitted, "You'd think it wouldn't work the fifth time, but that head… Eghgh," he groaned into his hands. "What happened, Tambers? What did we do to deserve this?"

"Don't call me Tambers," Tambry shot back, "And I guess following some kid we barely know into the "creepy part" of the forest, and not telling anybody about it, was a bad idea."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"I don't even know anymore…." her voice trailed off. She was staring intently at the top of her cellphone screen. There was something flickering. Yes! It was there! "Yes!" Tambry exclaimed, louder than Nate had ever heard from her, "I got it!"

"What?! Did you find something!? Can we leave now!" Hope surged through Nate's voice.

Tambry looked at Nate smiling, "Hm. Oh, no. I got a signal!" She happily clicked away on her phone.

"Ughgh! That's it!"

Her smile turned, "Hey, I have to stay in touch with all my friends. At all times!"

"Oh my God! No one cares whether or not you update your feed for two minutes! And a missed text or two isn't the end of the world!" Nate yelled, irritated at Tambry's "plugged in" nature.

Tambry gasped at his accusation, "You take that back! My voice is a vital part of the local online scene!" Nate could only roll his eyes at that.

At that point Lee decided to join the conversation, the shouting having shaken him from his vegetative state. He dragged himself over, a few tears still in his eyes, "At least you guys still have your dignity! My darkest secret's been broadcast to the world! I'll have to live in the dump with McGucket from now on!"

"Oh, get over it dude!" Nate groaned, "We all knew your name was Ashlee! I've known you since grade school!"

"Don't say it out loud!" Lee moaned.

The argument became unintelligible shouting at that point, each of their complaints swirled into a cacophony of annoying adolescence. None of them heard twigs snap, as someone else stepped into the clearing.

"Uh… guys?" a voice asked.

The trio stopped in their vocal tracks. Terror filled their hearts. Nate whirled around, arms held up in front of his eyes, and screamed.

"We're sorry, man! We'll keep looking!"

"Nate, what are you doing?" Nate cracked his eyes open at the familiar voice. It was Wendy. The group ran up and tackled the redhead to the ground in joy. She was used to the occasional dogpile, she was a Corduroy after all, but not from these guys.

"Guys!? What's up?! What's going on?" She tried to pull herself from her clutching friends. Nate looked up at her with tears in his eyes.

"Wendy! It's Dipper! He's nuts! He made us come out here to look for some fallout shelter or something, and he's got some weird, magic Area 51 mumbo jumbo going on!" Nate tried to get through the story without breaking down into sobs.

"Dipper? Uhh… I think you guys might have the wrong kid," Wendy said unconvinced, "Dipper's a little weird, but I don't think he could force a dog to sit, let alone get three people into a forest to look for what now?

"He's telling the truth," both Lee and Tambry exclaimed. Tambry took the lead, "We're not lying! Something's wrong with him, Wendy! It's like he's possessed!"

Wendy had heard some weird things since she'd gotten back from her family trip. Robbie hadn't answered any of her texts or calls, and she'd heard that the Gleeful kid had been found in a coma at his house. Then Stan had said that her friends were in the forest with Dipper, but she had just figured her friends were being nice to the kid. Dipper… Dipper couldn't be responsible for all this weirdness. Why would he? More importantly, how could he?

She pushed her friends off to stand. "Okay guys, I'll get to the bottom of this." Wendy pushed her cap further down on her head, she turned to leave the clearing, "He through here?" she asked, pointing to the trees.

They all nodded. They hoped she could talk him down. Wendy had a way with people, she was nice, thoughtful, and new how to put a bear in a full nelson. If anyone could get them out of this, it was her.

Wendy squeezed through the tall pines, a stern look on her face. She'd help her friends with this, and if Dipper was doing all this, she'd help him too.

She pulled herself from the old bark into another, larger, clearing. Wendy spotted Dipper on top of a boulder, staring off into space. She slowly walked over to the towering rock, and looked up at her younger friend.

"Heyya Dipper! How ya doin!" She yelled up at him.

Bill looked down over at the ginger teen. Dipper recognized the voice, he didn't have to see her to know.

_"Wendy!"_

Bill grinned. So this was Wendy in the flesh. He gave her a quick once over. She'd be just as easy as the rest.

"How ya doing, Red?" his nasally tone sounded off to Wendy. His cantor was off too, Dipper was always a stuttering mess around her, but he was cool as cucumber now.

Bill gave her a gash of a grin, "I'm glad you're here, Wendy! You can help me and your friends look for something!"

Wendy frowned at him, "Dipper, I think it's time they go home." She was stern with her words.

"Oh no! Come on, Red! It'll be fun! Running around with your friends. Using your eyes to look at all this….. nature! And stuff! Who doesn't want that?! Please Wendy, you can help out your old pal Dipper, can't you." Bill tried his hardest to sound convincingly cute, but could only manage being unbelievably creepy.

_"Come on Wendy, don't buy it!" _Dipper crossed his proverbial fingers in hope. Bill reached over and flicked the Dipper mark in annoyance.

Wendy saw the not so subtle movement. "You got a mosquito bite there, dude?"

"Huh? What?" Bill was confused, she wasn't brain dead like the others. His eyes widened as she jumped up onto the boulder and scaled up to the top, next to him. She took a step toward him.

"Here, let me take a look. I've got some aloe, might help."

"I don't have any!" Bill tried to step back, but found that he didn't have any more rock to step to, "Get away from me Red!"

Before he could try and jump away, Wendy grabbed Bill by the shirt and lifted him up. She looked into his eggy eyes. He tried wriggling from her grasp, but her lumberjack grip kept him still.

"Let's take a look at that bite," she mumbled. Her other hand reached out and pushed up one of Bill's long sleeves. The Dipper mark had morphed to look even more frantic, cartoonish sweat beads rolled off of it. Wendy looked deep into the tiny inked eyes, she recognized that anxious stare.

She looked back to Bill and smiled, "You're not Dipper."


	11. Chapter 11

Since she'd been born, Wendy had known that her town had something wrong with it. It was hard to admit that she'd noticed the shadows lurking beneath her brothers' bed, or the creature that would stand right behind her for hours on end, or noticing the lights and sinister whispers that peaked out from the woods at night. And then there was that night at the Dusk 2 Dawn, which brought all those fears to the front of her mind.

She hated to admit that it was just easier to ignore it, and pretend it hadn't happened. Just some wacky dream, or cheesy ghost story Stan had told her.

This was different; she couldn't ignore her friends when things got this weird. Not when one of them was missing, three more of them scared witless of a twelve year old, and said twelve year old acting like a complete dink.

Wendy narrowed her eyes at the shifty looking tween in front of her. Dipper looked wrong. His eyes were yellowish, like he had a skin disorder, and the pupils looked stretched, and cat like. He also had that weirdly lifelike tattoo of himself. She hadn't figured Dipper for narcissistic body modification, and Crazy Jim wouldn't work on kids.

But his look could be blamed on his terrible sleeping schedule, and the tattoo could have just been Mabel getting a hold of him. It was his behavior that really worried her. Dipper was awkward and dopey, sometimes even a little cute, not whatever this was. This Dipper reminded her of a sleazy used car salesman, worse than Bud Gleeful. The little creep had even called her "Red", which was a no-go for anybody. No, this was not the little buddy she'd made a few weeks ago.

"You gonna let me go or what, Girly?! Come on, put me down! Put me _**DOWN!**_" Bill screamed impetuously. His tiny, child hands pulled at Wendy's iron grip, but only managed in making her hold tighter.

_"What is wrong with him?" _Wendy thought.

Dipper had heard that. Bill had slipped up again. _"It's a long story Wendy! Don't worry just take him out! Just not in the face, alright!?"_

"_**SHUT UP,**_ _**PINE TREE**_!" Bill roared. His face faulted, "I mean, uh… those pines are really noisy, am I right?" Realizing his save hadn't fooled her, he continued to try and escape. The redhead put him in a headlock so she could think.

What was up with that voice? It dropped like a crappy dubstep song. It was like that time at the Dusk 2 Dawn. Mabel had been taken over by that shop keep's ghost, maybe something like it got Dipper. _"Uhghghh! I don't know what to do! Dipper's the one who knows about this stuff! M-Maybe Mabel'll know. Yeah, she's read that weird book Dipper has. Or she's at least heard him read it out loud, I know I have…. FOCUS! Need to… Need too..."_

Bill had started to gnaw through her flannel shirt.

_"Make him stay still!"_

Wendy pulled the boy out from her armpit and held him at arm's length. She gave her friend a sad look before declaring, "Dipper, if you're in there, I'm sorry, but this is for your own good," She clenched her teeth and pulled back her fist.

Bill pulled and pushed away with all of Dipper's strength, "No! You don't wanna do that Red! You'll regret this!" he pleaded before screeching, "_**I'LL SWALLOW YOUR SO-!**_" Wendy's fist crashed into the left side of his face, knocking him out cold.

Wendy regretfully sighed at having to clock one of her friends. Like a bundle of timber, she hoisted him under her arm.

Lee, Nate, and Tambry peaked out from behind the pines, and saw their friend triumphant over their captor. They all scrambled over each other to hug/tackle Wendy in gratitude. Tears streamed down their faces as they embraced the tall ginger.

"Thank you, Wendy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Nate cried into Wendy's flannel shirt.

Lee hung onto her left leg like a dog, "We thought we were gonna be trapped out here forever!" He continued crying.

Tambry's thick mascara ran down her face and onto Wendy's midsection. She hung onto her best friend for dear life, "How'd did you get him? D-Did you, like, exorcise him or something?" she sniffled.

Wendy gave a quizzical tilt of the head, "What do you mean? I punched him," she mimed the hit, "Went out like a light."

The teens all looked at each other, a sobered look came to their tear filled eyes. All of them dislodged themselves from their savior.

"You just hit him? That's all it took?" Nate felt stupid for having to ask.

"Yeah," Wendy said with a shrug.

Lee chimed in, "B-But how?! Didn't he like scare you?"

"Guys. It's Dipper," she held him out like a stuffy doll and shook him for effect, "What could he have possibly done?" she paused, "Wait. What did he actually do to you guys?" She was genially curious as to how Dipper managed to contain three teenagers twice his size.

All of her friends dropped their heads in shame. They stuck their hands into their pockets as they dejectedly kicked into the dirt.

"He ah…. He- he yelled at us with a scary voice," Nate admitted. He didn't want to look Wendy in the eyes.

Wendy rose a finger, but before she could comment, Lee burst out, "It was like, really scary! Like, the Exorcist combined with some kind of Damien stuff, dude!" Tambry and Nate nodded along in agreement, trying to save face.

Wendy was more than a little dumbfounded at their behavior. They weren't that dumb, were they? "Did he put you all in pine cones or the trees? Like at the convenience store?"

Nate shook his head, "The what?! No! His voice got all deep and creepy. He said he'd swallow my soul and stuff." He didn't know what Wendy was talking about. The last time anything weird happened to him at a convenience store was when he got a bad hotdog a few weeks ago. Or… wait, was he the hotdog? No- no that wouldn't make sense.

"So he didn't hurt you?"

Her friends sighed in unison, "No."

"So you're all okay?"

Another sigh, "Yeah."

"You all good to go home on your own?" A slow, miserable nod was their only response. The teens started pulling sticks and shaking rocks out of their clothes and hair, as they began a depressed walk back towards town. Wendy gave them all one last look, "Eh. They'll be fine."

She turned her attention back to the unconscious minor she was currently manhandling. Whether Dipper was possessed or if it just a particularly bad case of Conifer Fever, Wendy knew she had to get him back to the Shack. She took a deep breath and broke out into a sprint.

* * *

Deep Inside the Mindscape of Dipper Pines

* * *

Bill reeled back from Dipper's consciousness. He was back in the kid's mindscape. Bill had a confused look in his eye. That redheaded sack of flesh has punched him in his stolen nose!

_"Ughgh! That little whelp!" _Bill's body had taken on an angry shade of red, his eye blackened, _"I'm a being of pure energy, with no weakness! You think a cheap sucker punch'll keep me down, Girly!? All I need to do is take back control of this meat suit! Didn't think about that did'ja!" _Bill screamed to himself.

_ "Not happening Cipher," _a legion of voices intoned from behind the demon.

Bill flipped his perspective and saw a very angry looking army of Dipper Pines. Their numbers were in the thousands, if not millions. Most had lined up into ranks, while others had started crawling over one another to create several Conglomerate Dippers.

_"I want my body back, Bill!" _The Dipper encampment yelled.

Bill scoffed, _"Oh, what!? You think you're hot stuff just because you can manipulate your psychic avatar?! Who cares, kid?! You wanna see something really scary?!" _Bill slid into the ground, his body slithered along the white floor of Dipper's mindscape until he made it into the middle of the clones' encampment. The triangle expanded his body several kilometers in all directions.

The colossal, inhuman eye brightened below the feet of the Dippers. _"How do like this Pine Tree!?" _Bill roared. His, now gigantic, spindly arms rose up and began grabbing the Dippers.

_"Ahhhh!" _Dippers screamed.

_"That fight between you and Gideon was pathetic, Pine Tree! I've seen better psychic combat from roadside hucksters! Let me show you what a real master of the mind __**CAN DO!**__" _


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Hi! It's been a while. So I was thinking about Part 2 and decided I should probably make sure that everything was set up for the stuff I wanted to do in it, and upon rereading this stuff I realized "Man this is crap" and rewrote a lot of stuff. So I'm reuploading this because a lot of the story has been touched up, and several plot points have been changed. I'd definitely give it another once over because of all the changes, also because hey why not.

* * *

Wendy sprinted back towards the Mystery Shack, an unconscious Dipper dangled from her grasp. She was sure Mabel would know what to do with her brother's current weirdness. Well, she hoped she did, Mabel hadn't really commented on her possession after the fact. Someone named "Aoshima" was all she would talk about.

She crashed through the brush into the back yard of the Shack, and kept on through the unlocked back door into the Pines' kitchen. The lights were off, she couldn't hear the television, or Mabel and Stan. Wendy gently placed Dipper into a chair and went to look for Mabel.

"Mabel! Stan! Anybody home?!" Wendy yelled into the old home. She moved into the living room and saw a destroyed television, the remote control was stuck in the screen. Had Stan "forgotten" to pay his cable bill again and gotten angry? No he'd usually just break the remote, not the TV itself.

She spotted a note stuck to the dinosaur skull next to the recliner. It read, _"Dipper killed the television. Went to steal_/_buy a new one. Sincerely Stan Pines." _Below that was a large swathe of glittery lettering reading, _"And MABEL!" _If she wasn't so frazzled, Wendy would have laughed.

"Awww! Come on world! What'd I do to deserve this?!" she groaned. Doing a quick, exasperated hair pull, Wendy went back into the kitchen. Dipper was twitching in the chair she left him in, drooling. His eyes were open, but empty; the whites had taken over the entirety of the spheres.

"Okay Wendy, you can do this. You've dealt with things like this before. Like when Dad chugged a gallon of maple syrup. Or when we made Thompson drink a third gallon of butter," she chuckled at the memory, "Heh. Good times. Good times," Thompson was so gullible…. She heard Dipper gurgling and remembered what she was doing. "Right! Dipper's possessed! Probably need help! Need…need… I need that dumb book! Good idea me!"

It was probably up in the twins' room. She rushed up the stairs to look.

* * *

Deep Inside the Mindscape of Dipper Pines

* * *

Bill Cipher was a golden shadow on the white floor of the cranial battlefield. He looked like a schizophrenic's idea of a sidewalk chalk drawing. The demon's 2D body gained an extra dimension at the arms, its zigzagging limbs hung in the air, grabbing at any Dipper clone not fast enough to get away.

The arms had branched themselves into a canopy of claws. Bill picked up Dippers by the handful, throwing them off into the void of the mindscape. Not wanting to be too predictable, Bill would occasionally crush some of the copies in his hands, their remains falling to the ground like sand.

Dipper, the real one, had grouped together with an assortment of clones to figure out a strategy.

_"Okay guys, we need a plan," _Dipper Prime started off.

A clone to his left spoke up, _"Well thirty-million clones didn't exactly help, so let's not waste any more time on them._

_ "But were dropping like flies!" _Another countered, _"He's throwing us around like ragdolls! We need more of us to hold the line until we think of a good plan." _

_ "Yeah, no offense to all of us, but we're scrawny twelve year olds. We can't really do much," _Dipper Clone #4,645,656 shot back,_ "Bill's using everything in his arsenal right now. If we don't step it up we'll all end up like those poor saps." _ He pointed a thumb at a battalion of charging Dippers getting swiftly smashed like a colony of ants.

_"We could try another Conglomerate Dipper?" _Dipper Prime motioned.

The rest groaned in tandem, _"Are we really calling it that?"_

_ "What? What's wrong with it?"_

Dipper #888 shook his head, _"It sounds creepy. Makes us seem like a mutant or something."_

_ "Oh come on! We all technically thought of it," _the first sputtered, trying to save face.

_"Yeah but we all know that sometimes dumb ideas slip through the gaps." _The rest of the Dippers nodded in agreement.

_"Whatever! We should still do it. It worked against Gideon didn't it!?"_

_ "But if we're not all okay with the name it might not work. What if our self-esteem breaks in the fight, and we fall apart?"_

_ "You've gotta be kidding me! Is this really how I work out problems?!"_

A previously silent Dipper, with a backwards facing cap, spoke up, _"What if, and just hear me out here, what if we called it Amalgam Dipper?" _Mumblings and nods went throughout the circling of clones. Comments of, _"Yeah I like it." _and _"That's a lot better." _could be heard in the crowd.

The real Dipper face palmed with a sigh of contempt. _"This is ridiculous." _

Backwards Cap Dipper got in the center of the group. _"Okay guys! Let's do this! Amalgam Dipper, activat- Aaaaahhhhh!" _A swarm of snake-like Bill arms ripped the clone from his spot into the sky. His screams echoed back down to the rest of the copies.

The remaining Dippers all looked at each other warily. _"Conglomerate Dipper?"_

_ "Sounds good."_

* * *

Back at the Shack

* * *

Wendy rifled through Dipper and Mabel's drawers looking for the Journal. She had already exhausted the twins' closet and under their beds. All she found was a series of outfits Wendy had never seen Dipper wear, which meant that rumor about him never changing his clothes might be true, and Mabel's insanely large sweater collection.

Opening the end table next to Dipper's bed, she found a small notebook. Flipping through it revealed badly written poetry and notes that looked like they were never meant to be read by anyone but him. Several of the entries mentioned her by name. She sheepishly closed the notebook and placed it back into the drawer.

"Let's pretend I didn't see that," Wendy said, an uncomfortable edge creeping into her voice.

The redhead tried Mabel's nightstand next. Inside were sowing supplies, goofy doodles, a recipe for something called "Mabel Juice", and…..a gas powered grappling hook. Wendy looked at the dangerous implement in confusion.

"Why does she have this?" the teen mumbled, "More importantly, where did she get it…?" she trailed off. Wendy pointed the gun at the pillow on Dipper's bed. She smirked, it wouldn't work. _"I know Mabel's got some weird stuff around here, but come on. She's still a kid. It's probably just a toy she brought from home for her little pretend games."_

Wendy pulled the trigger without a care in the world and heard the whizzing of rope as it shot across the room into Dipper's pillow. The pillow came flying back to Wendy, right into her face.

The cushion fell to the floor with a soft thump. Wendy placed the grappling hook back into Mabel's drawer. _"Gonna have to watch myself around Mabel from now on," _she thought nervously.

Shaking her head, she looked back over to Dipper's bed, and saw the Journal laying right on the boy's bed. The pillow had been covering it. Wendy stumbled over to the book, the gleaming number 3 shined into her green eyes. "It's like your mocking me," she grumbled in disbelief.

She grabbed the book and jogged back down to the kitchen. Dipper had fallen from his seat, and was now writhing on the floor like he was doing an overenthusiastic version of worm.

"Oh boy." She pulled Dipper back onto the chair, making sure he was steadier than before. Swirling lines had begun moving in and out of the boy's eyes, giving him the appearance of a doped up cartoon character. "Okay Dipper. Let's get you fixed." She started flipping through the Journal. "The heck is a gremloblin?"

* * *

In the Midst of Psychic Combat!

* * *

_"Come on, Pine Tree, you can do better than that!" _Bill mocked, _"I already know your dumb combining trick! Try something different!" _The demon smacked the Conglomerate Dipper back from its arms, causing the giant to collapse back into a pile of normal tweens.

Bill lifted his entire body back into the third dimension, the triangle towered over the copies. _"Here let me show you a better trick." _Bill snapped his fingers and started falling to pieces.

It looked like he was just making an army of smaller Bills, like Dipper had, but the flying shapes started slotting themselves into each other. Each Bill fit into the next perfectly, like a good PLEGO set. More Bills spilled out of empty space, slotting themselves into the mass as soon as they formed. Dipper tried to pull himself together back into the giant him, but could only watch in horror as Bill finished his transformation.

Where Dipper had just made a larger version of himself with his clones, Bill had taken it a step further, going in a more fantastical direction. A golden claw crashed into the ground, shaking the Dippers to the floor.

He had shaped himself into a gigantic, golden dragon-shaped Bill. A million eyes glared at Dipper from every inch of the dragon. It opened its mouth, showing a maw of razor sharp, Bill fangs. _"__**TRY USING YOU'RE IMAGINATION, YOU LITTLE RAT!**__" Dragon-Bill roared._

* * *

Let's Crack Back to the Shack!

* * *

Wendy had found the chapter on ghosts. There were apparently different levels of ghosts, going from 1 to 10. Level 1s wouldn't possess people, just annoy them with talk about friendship and a desire to go on adventure.

They only got dangerous at about Level 4, when they started throwing stuff around, but they didn't get into possession until level 7. There was a note on the side about how at that point it was hard to differentiate between ghosts and demons, which needed to be handled differently. She tried looking for anything more, but couldn't find any specific entries. The book was a maze of nerd jargon only the geekiest-geeks would get, so finding anything substantial was a challenge.

What she did find was a series of spells and exorcism rituals for ghosts. The rites required a lot of skill, preparation, and components to work properly. None of which Wendy had at the moment. She needed results right then, and there was only one spell that fit her requirements. The Journal called it "The Lazy Bum's Quick Exorcism for Chumps." All it needed was a few household ingredients and a quick incantation. Now that she could do. The only caveat was a warning in a footnote she barely noticed. It read: _"Warning. Using this spell on anything but a ghost will cause "Unimaginable Horror." _Wendy wasn't sure what that meant, and didn't really care. She was sure this was a ghost anyway.

Wendy pulled Dipper onto the kitchen table and put him into a spread eagle position. She had to pull off his shirt to get all of the sigils onto his body. _"Really glad he's unconscious right now." _When she finished, all she had to do was splash a cup of "Bad horror movie" on the possessed. Wendy new exactly where to get one of those.

She went to the living room and looked through the cupboards around the now destroyed television. There were a lot of old westerns, a few cheesy sci-fi flicks, and several of Mabel's cartoons. But in the back, behind the spider's nest and the layer of mold, was an old dusty tape that she had only watched once. Pulling it out, she heard a ripping sound from the tape being removed from the cobwebs.

The tape was blank save for a single piece of masking tape with a few words written on it. It was called The Mystery of the Shack and it was a "movie" Stan had made a few years ago, in the hopes of drumming up business for the Shack. It was about a lone traveler finding a mysterious shack, and the horrors that awaited him inside. It stared Stan, and only Stan, as every character. Wendy had only managed to get through it once; it quite possibly the worst movie she had ever seen in her entire life. Nothing about it was good; it wasn't even so bad it was good. It was so bad it was mind numbingly horrible. And it was the perfect ingredient for the spell.

Wendy took the tape to the kitchen, and smashed it underneath a toaster. She scooped the scraps into a measuring cup and brought it to the writhing Dipper. She looked at the cup for a moment, wondering on the exact application, before simply shrugging and throwing the destroyed VHS tape at the boy's face.

She began chanting, _"Manos, Robeast, and Go-Go a Monster! Please open your heart to me, or you might go Bonkers!" _she stopped, "Really who wrote this cr-?" A blinding light shot out from Dipper's eyes and mouth. The boy's head rattled and spun around like a loose doll head. Inhuman moans and screams came from all directions.

Wendy took a few steps back, and crossed her fingers. _"Come on Dipper. Come back. Come back."_

* * *

Dragons! Bill! Dying! GO!

* * *

The now draconic Bill had begun stampeding through the mindscape, annihilating any and all Dippers in his wake. Instead of flames, the Bill-Dragon just released torrents of smaller Bills from its jaws.

Dipper had taken Bill's advice about imagination and taken to the skies by growing a pair of wings. He flapped his tiny bird wings to get around the monstrous demon on the ground. The Bill-Dragon had wings, but hadn't taken flight yet, which Dipper was not complaining about.

He strained to form another squadron of Dippers, but the paltry amount was quickly destroyed by Bill's claws. The preteen was feeling the mental strain of the prolonged fight, he could feel his mind slipping. It felt like he was falling asleep, but he could only just hang on to his pseudo-consciousness. If he wasn't careful he'd end up like Gideon.

As the Bill-Dragon reared its head up to fire a blast at Dipper, the mindscape shook with the force of an earthquake. A bright crack formed against the white backdrop of the mental world, showing hazy images of what looked like a girl's face.

Dipper recognized it almost instantly, it was Wendy. Bill looked at the image and roared with laughter. Every Bill that made up the dragon's body shook from laughing.

_"Well looky what we got here! The little tramp that clocked me is trying to help you, Pine Tree! Isn't that sweet. If I had a heart, I think it'd break from this saccharine display!" _Dipper didn't respond. _"Doesn't it make you feel good that the girl you love- sorry did I say love?! I meant__** STALK**__! The girl you creepily stalk is trying to help your skeezy little butt! Aint that funny?!"_

Dipper remained silent as Bill stretched his arm at lightning speed and threw him to the ground. A claw was slammed onto his tiny body, leaving Dipper's head barely visible between the claws. Bill arched his long neck down at his captured prey. A single Bill popped itself from the tip of the dragon's snout and floated over Dipper.

_ "And you know what really makes this great for me, Pine Tree!? That moron is using an exorcism spell for ghosts!" _Bill cackled. He pointed a finger at the tear in the sky. _"I know that spell, and if it works, we're both outta here! It'll rip us out of this body, and keep us out, __**FOREVER**__! Not the best for you, but great for me!" _Bill casually laid an arm around Dipper's neck, _"And just think. Once I'm out, I can tell Red all about are time together. How you used me to traumatize her little boytoy, and the LIED about it! Lied to her, your sister, that walking corpse you call an uncle."_

The light inside the mindscape was becoming dimmer. He couldn't let it end like this, under the boot of some geometric dick while he waited for Wendy to learn about all of his lies. Hisvision was getting blurry, he could feel something going through him. Was that Bill keeping him still? No, no this felt familiar like when he heard those feedback loops.

_"Wait. Wait just a dang minute," _Dipper thought. Bill didn't respond. More than that, he hadn't heard it. Another thought ran through his ghostly head, he knew what the feedback was. Dipper felt Bill slip.

_"Just a second or two more, Pine Tree. Then it'll all be over," _Bill whispered menacingly.

_"No," _Dipper almost inaudibly whispered.

Bill got closer to him, and leaned in, _"I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't quite here you, boy. Please say your pointless declaration of 'You'll never get away with this!' __**PLEASE. **__I want to hear you try and lie to yourself. _

Dipper looked up at the demon, _"I said. __**NO!**__"_

* * *

The Real World

* * *

Wendy watched Dipper float in the air as the spell did its work. She could hear more human sounding voices coming from Dipper. It almost sounded like an argument. The teen was running her hands through her red locks in worry.

"Please work. Please work," she begged.

The voices got louder and louder, she could almost make out what they were saying. The light shining from Dipper's eyes became blindingly intense in turn with the volume. She was about to give a successful cheer before a voice screamed above the others, _"__**NO!**__" _

And with a flash, Dipper fell back onto the table. He wasn't moving.

Wendy put a hand over her mouth, "Oh no."

* * *

The Mindscape

* * *

The crack in the sky sealed itself with a flash and a thundering crash. Bill was thrown back from Dipper with the force of a hurricane. The rest of the Bill-Dragon crumbled into the aether from the blast.

_"What the?! How'd her spell fail!?" _Bill yelled into the sky, _"Don't tell me you did that?!" _Bill eyed Dipper back on the ground. The boy had gotten back onto his feet.

_"Your right Bill. I was being too rudimentary with my thoughts. I'll take a page from your book," _Dipper's voice was hard.

Bill rolled his eye, _"Oh what?! You think you can pull out some eleventh-hour super power on me, kid!? What part of 'Master of the Mind' do you not __**UNDERSTAND**__?!" _Bill was about to strike the boy with a bolt of nightmares, but was blasted back into the sky even further by the same invisible force.

Dipper took a step forward and appeared next to Bill in the air. He stared into the demon's single eye, with a new kind of cold intensity. Bill leapt back from the boy in surprise. Dipper's eyes twitched and Bill was sent flying into the ground.

_ "You 'slipped up' again, Bill!" _Dipper yelled, emotion flooding back into his voice, _"I thought you said those were no big deal?!" _

Bill sneered, _"You think a mess up means you have control, Pine Tree!? You're barely at a novice's level of psychic combat! Just try me, and I'll rip your ego to shreds!"_

_"I do think that Bill! You want to know why? Remember when you said that my ritual messed up? How we're psychic conjoined twins?_" Dipper started to explain.

_"And, Pine Tree!?" _Bill roared before trying to attack Dipper again. His power wouldn't come to him, not even a spark of eerie dreams. He was thrown again.

The mindscape was suddenly dark. The demon hung in the ether, unsure where the kid had gone, unsure of a lot of things, actually. He couldn't think straight. Bill tried looking around, but the only visible light was coming from his golden body, and it only extended a few millimeters. He floated up from where he was thrown. _"What's going on?" _Bill thought, _"My powers are gone. Did that broken spell fuse us too closely? Is that little spaz stealing my power?_

A voice came from behind him, _"You took the words right out of my mouth._

Bill turned, but was grabbed by a something in the darkness. Dipper's small face appeared in front of him, he glared at the dream demon.

_"You didn't let me finish, Bill. That spell's been siphoning power from you. That's where your 'omniscience' went. Me. Every 'slip up' you made? Your 'feedback' was giving me your powers without either of us even knowing." _Dipper leaned in as a familiar eye opened up on his forehead.

Bill tried to wrench himself from whatever was holding him, but was unable to break free. _"What is this, kid!?"_

_ "This," _Dipper snapped his fingers, turning the light back on, and revealing what was holding Bill, _"Is a taste of your own medicine."_

A pair of oozing hands were gripping Bill's triangular body. Bill followed the dripping arms up and saw a nightmare. A round face, with empty sockets and a hanging mouth stared down at him. The top of its head was enflamed with eldritch fire; its mouth was filled to the brim with rusty syringes, all dripping with a glowing, green fluid. Several more arms hung below the two that held Bill, all of them ended in the same dripping claws. A long white coat was wrapped around the rest of its body, completely concealing its torso and legs.

_"When I was younger I was terrified of going to the doctor, mainly because of the shots. So whenever I had an appointment I would have terrible nightmares about a monster I called Doctor Scary-Face. Every night he gobbled me up, and I woke up with a wet bed. I felt like you two would be right at home with one another," _Dipper explained, just a little too giddy.

_"You think this thing'll hold me, Pine Tree!? I've seen worse nightmares in a kiddy book!" _Bill yelled.

_"Yeah, yeah I do, Bill," _Dipper frowned, _"I'm not going to split us apart Bill. Not when I know what you'll do after. I'm going to keep you here until I can find a way to get rid of you! __**FOR GOOD**__!" _

Dr. Scary-Face rose Bill into its mouth, the throat of the nightmare was lined with more syringes. Bill gave another scream of defiance, _"This won't keep me down forever! My power'll come back eventually, and when it does I'll break your mind down to the level of a vegetable!" _

_ "I'll be waiting for that." _Dipper turned his back on the demon as it was swallowed. The last thing he heard was one more, undecipherable threat from Bill.

Dipper gave a long, tired sigh, _"I'm going to wake up now."_

* * *

The Place Where People Are Not Asleep, But Awake, But Still Weird Sometimes, And I Should Probably Just Stop Now.

* * *

Wendy had just about gone into shock at the failure of her spell. Tears began welling up into her eyes when Dipper dropped back onto the table, unmoving. Relief washed over her when she saw him trying to get up. She rushed over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders in her iron grip.

"Dipper! Is that you!? Please tell me it's you! If it's not I'll totally knock you out again!" Wendy was hopeful that it had worked, but still kept her fist in prime whacking position.

The boy looked up at her groggily, "Wendy? W-What? Where are we?" It sounded like Dipper. Well it sounded like Dipper had just been thrown out of a moving car, but still him.

"Yes! All right, it worked!" She gave the boy a quick embrace before giving him a confused frown, "What happened, Dipper? What was in there with you?"

Dipper sighed. He didn't want to lie to her. He wanted to just tell her the whole story about how he had actually gotten into a fight with Robbie, and what had happened with Bill and the mess he had caused. He really wanted to. But he didn't.

"I was trying to find a way to make it up to you for getting into a fight with Robbie. I found this thing in my book about a wish granting spirit. And I thought I might be able to wish for something nice for you, but I guess he wasn't all I thought he'd be," Dipper lied. Only a little sweat had formed on his head.

Wendy didn't say anything for a while. He was worried that she'd caught him in his lie, but she finally spoke, "Oh, Dipper. I thought I said not to worry about that."

He rubbed that back of his head and gave a little chuckle, "I know. I know. But I just wanted to make it up to you, ya know?"

Wendy smiled at him, "That's really sweet, Dipper. Don't worry about it though, okay? I don't want my friends getting hurt over something that dumb, alright."

Dipper returned her smile, "You got it."

Wendy got up from the table, "Good. Now come on, let's get you off the table and clean up this mess."

Dipper moved slowly off the table, every muscle of his body ached as he moved. He hadn't realized how much Bill had thrown his body around. He was going to be really sore in the morning.

A worrying thought came to mind, "You're not going to tell Mabel or Grunkle Stan about this are you?" They could not know about all this. Juggling lies is hard enough without people knowing the full story.

"Nah, I think you've been through enough today. You don't want those two jumping down your throat," Wendy said as she cleaned up the rest of the destroyed video tape. "Besides I don't think Stan would even believe us."

Dipper smirked, "Yeah, you're probably right."

They cleaned up the rest of the kitchen in content silence.

* * *

End Part 1


	13. Chapter 13 (Begin Part 2)

Part 2 – Dipping a Little Deeper

OO

The Valentino Funeral Home

OO

A warm fire crackled in the dimly lit den of the Valentino Funeral Home. Two of the bubbliest morticians ever to live sat in each other's arms while relaxing on their extremely pink sofa. They had managed to finish up most of the day's work early, and had decided to take a well-deserved break.

Pamela and Jason Valentino let a worried sigh drag as they tried to enjoy the flickering glow of the fire light. They had invited their son, Robbie, down to join them, and like always he'd refused, and like always they'd just smile and chock it up to their little boy growing up.

But it'd been a few days since he'd left the house… or his room in general for that matter. This past Wednesday he'd come crashing through the front door screaming for his life, yelling something about pines trees and teeth. They couldn't really get any coherent responses out of him that night, just terrified babbling.

"Should I try talking to him again?" Jason wondered aloud with an involuntary frown. He hated frowning around his family; it made him feel suffocating.

Pamela gave him a sweet little grin, "I don't think there'd be any harm in it. Fifth time's the charm, right?" Her husband was always so sweet to their son. "Oh, could you take some dinner up to him, dear? I don't think he's been eating much lately."

"One step ahead of ya, Hun!" Jason had already walked to the kitchen. Robbie had to be starving, he'd seen his son skulking around the kitchen the other night, scrounging for food, before he bolted back up the stairs.

Jason grabbed some leftover dinner from the countertop and walked up to Robbie's room. He passed the line of photos of his son; the progression of the pictures showing Robbie's transformation into the pseudo-goth he was now usually made visitors cringe. Jason, and Pamela for that matter, couldn't be happier with them.

Two light knocks on his son's door earned Jason a loud scream followed by a series of crashes and progressively quieter yelps. The door cracked open by an inch, a chain was keeping it from opening any further; Robbie's shaking, bloodshot eyes peaked out.

"Wh-Whatyouwant?!" Robbie spat out. He spoke so fast that his words had combined into an unintelligible mass that barely qualified as English.

"Hi son! Your mother and I thought you might be hungry, so I brought you up some dinner," Jason helpfully held out the plate of food.

Robbie recoiled slightly at the gesture. "Ah! Where did that come from?!"

"The kitchen, son," Jason said, almost sighing. This wasn't the first time he'd heard this.

"How do I know it won't make my teeth fall out!?"

"Because it's just normal food, son," Robbie's father stayed positive, "And because it was made with love by your mother and me." He gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Well how do I know this isn't a dream right now, huh!?" Robbie yelled like it was a matter of fact, "Maybe this is'all some kind of crazy hallucination made by that dweeb and the triangle guy?!" Trying to sound smart was hard when you looked like a manic-depressive on methamphetamines.

Jason wasn't really sure what to say to that. He started to say something a few times before stopping himself, realizing that his son was probably a little too far gone for any kind of rational speech.

"I'll just leave this here then," Jason put the plate of food in front of the door. Robbie eyed it like a starved hyena before staring daggers into his father's face. Mr. Valentino sighed before walking back down the hall. He wondered if there were any trained therapists in Gravity Falls.

"Yeah! That's right 'Dad' you go back down the 'stairs,' and go talk to 'Mom!' Yeah! Uh-huh! You do that!" Robbie raved, flailing his hands around while making exaggerated quotes with his unshowered fingers.

As Jason rounded the staircase Robbie, with speed you wouldn't expect from a malnourished minor, unchained the door, grabbed the plate of food, and then began eating so fast he ended up chomping on his fingers more than a few times. His body's hunger beat out his brain's malaise. He wasn't even sure what he was eating, let's say it was meatloaf with mashed potatoes, but he didn't care. Robbie had to pound his chest a few times to get the food down, as he barely chewed any of it.

After he had finished, in under a minute, Robbie scrambled back into his room. Both the chain and the bolt were reaffixed as soon as the door was shut. A sigh, probably closer to a groan, escaped from his frown like helium from a punctured balloon.

_"I shouldn't have done that!" _Robbie thought angrily, _"That food's probably just explode out of my stomach in an hour!" _He punched his fist into his awaiting palm in frustration. _"How am I supposed to know what's real?!" _

Robbie sulked over to his bed, and crawled under his cushy sheets, nothing could hurt him there… hopefully. He heard his phone ping from the nightstand. Probably Nate or Lee asking where he was again. They'd been at it for days, wondering when he was going to be coming out his house or talk to them at all. Robbie hadn't looked at his phone since he thought he spotted an unfeeling eye, which was actually an ad for Candy Smash, looking at him from the screen. It'd probably stop buzzing in a minute or two.

Defying expectations, however, Robbie's phone kept on beeping, for about ten minutes straight. And while Robbie was dedicated to the delusions that had been plaguing his mind for days, his phone had an extremely annoying text notification. He snatched the phone with a fingerless-gloved hand.

Opening up the screen showed the teen a barrage of texts, tweets, and posts, all focused on the little dweeb that had made Robbie's life miserable, Dipper Pines. Nate, Lee, and Tambry were all blowing up his feed with posts like: "Oh my God, Dipper Pines is an evil Demon child," and, "Just got out of Hell-Woods with freaky Pines kid. Almost died."

"I'm not crazy!" Robbie actually shouted. He didn't know if he was feeling jubilation or terror growing in his gut. He had evidence! ….well not exactly evidence, but at least it was some kind of justification to his madness. His pale fingers punched in questions to his friends, trying to get a bearing on what had happened.

Robbie: Hey Nate! WTF!? What hpnd?!

Nate: Dude! OMG! That Dipper kid is nuts! Hes like possessed or something!

Robbie: I knew it!

Nate: Oh man it was nuts! He was like screaming and yelln at us in the woods!

Robbie: Was there a triangle there!?

Nate: ?

Robbie: Well?!

Nate: …. No. No triangle. Just him.

Nate: Why?

Robbie: No reason! Just wondering! Hey did he do anything to you that didn't actually happen? Like rip all your teeth out? Or reverse your skin?

Nate: Again. No. Like I said he was yelling at us all scary in the woods.

Robbie: Wait. That's it?

Nate: Hey man! You weren't there! It was like super scary! Like Exorcist combined with the Ring combined with Hell dude!

Robbie: Right. How'd you escape?

Nate: Dude it was crazy! I thought we were gonna be there forever! But then Wendy showed up and totally saved our bacon. Knocked that little weirdo out with one punch!

Robbie: Wendy's back!

Nate: Yeah dude.

Robbie: Where is she now?!

Nate: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Nate: Saw her carry Dipper away after she knocked him out.

Nate: You there dude?

He was not. Robbie had crashed out of his room, down the stairs, through the front door of his home, and had begun sprinting down his road to the Corduroy residence. Who cared that it was half past 9, Robbie had to know if that little monster had hurt Wendy.


End file.
